Kiwi F5000 category pace-setter Michael Collins’ (Leda GM1) winning streak in New Zealand’s SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series continued in the first race of the weekend at the third round of the 2020/21 season at the annual Skope Classic historic motor racing meeting at Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park – Ruapuna this afternoon.
After helping make a little history in the category qualifying session this morning when he and sister Anna annexed the front row of the grid for today’s race in their Alistair Hey & Vicki Jones-owned Leda LT27s, defending SAS Autoparts MSC Series title holder Michael, 25, streaked away from Anna and everyone else in the 10-strong field to win the first 8-lap race of the weekend very much as he liked.
Along the way he set the fastest race lap – a 1:21.547 – before crossing the finish line 4.773 seconds in front of fellow category young gun Codie Banks (Lola T332) from Auckland with last season’s category runner-up, Glenn Richards (Lola T400) coming home a fast-finishing third
Anna Collinis easily held on to second place for the first two laps, before her car’s engine rev limiter started playing up and she was soon caught and quickly dropped back to fifth place by Codie Banks, Glenn Richards and Codie’s father David Banks (Talon MR1).
As it turned out that was as good as it was going to get for both Anna Collins and David Banks, with Anna’s race ending in the pits and Banks Snr’s at the side of the track with a flat front tyre.
With Kevin Ingram (Lola T332) – loose bodywork – and Shayne Windelburn (Lola T400) – a sticking throttle – also forced to pull out of the race only six cars were recorded as finishers.
Despite that Tony Galbraith (Lola T332) and Tim Rush (McLaren M22) were never more than a couple of car lengths apart, crossing the finish line in that order in fourth and fifth place respectively with Frank Karl – in the only older (Pre ’71) car in the field this weekend guaranteed himself maximum Class A points by claiming sixth place.
Tomorrow (Sunday) there is a second 8-lap rolling start race in the morning (due to start at 11.40am) then the final 12-lap event feature race set to start at 3.30pm.
The SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series is organised and run with the support of sponsors SAS Autoparts, MSC, NZ Express Transport, Bonney’s Specialised Bulk Transport, Mobil Lubricants, Pacifica, Avon Tyres, Webdesign and Exide Batteries.
Main Image: Terry Marshall