After three races in the second round UDC V8 Utes Series at Hampton Downs, Glen Collinson emerged as the round winner, narrowly edging a valiant charge from Brad Kroef, with his father Greg Kroef in third making for an all-Ford podium.
Yet it all came down to the last race. With one win apiece for Brad Kroef and Collinson coming into the afternoon, it was the Betta/Link-up Paints Ford FG piloted by Glen Collinson that prevailed. The less-experienced but immensely talented Brad Kroef made sure he earned it.
Collinson began his weekend in fine form by topping the timesheets in Saturday’s qualifying, where an impressive 15 entries took park.
Brad Kroef would keep the pressure on the pole-sitter in the opener, but Collinson slowly etched out his advantage to take a 4.4-second win. Greg Kroef completed the all-Ford podium, a further seven seconds behind, with Phill Ross and Daniel Ludlam completing the top five.
David ‘Shaggy’ Lowe, a returnee to the series after two seasons away, worked from tenth to sixth.
Sunday’s opener featured a reverse grid, with Collinson starting at the back of the field alongside Brad Kroef. It didn’t take long for these two talents to show their class.
Ludlam and Paul Fougere, both in Holden utes, led the field ahead Tyler Ward and Jeremy Hunt early, until a spin for the latter on the third lap prompted a safety car and the field bunched up.
When racing re-commenced a lap later, Geotech engineer Brad Kroef dug a trench through the mid-field and was up to fourth by lap four. But Collinson was menacingly close behind. Meanwhile, up front, Fougere had let his lead slip to Ludlam as the deck was being shuffled behind him.
Just two laps later Brad Kroef had found his way to the front, yet a tenacious Ludlam was clinging onto second with Collinson in his slipstream in third. Ross, meanwhile, had worked his way up to fourth after starting near the back. Ludlum’s luck was to run out on the last lap with a massive spin, gifting second place to Collinson, while Ross rounded out the podium.
That left it all down to Race 3 in the afternoon to decide the round winner. Collinson led the start with Brad Kroef right on his tailgate, followed by Ross. Greg Kroef eventually found a way around Ross, but by then, the leaders were already over six seconds ahead the chasing pack.
Near the end of an almost incident-free race, Paul Fougere went sideways on the final hairpin of the final lap, yet quickly regathered – denting his pride but not his ute. And despite Phill Ross trying every trick in his arsenal to get around Greg Kroef in 3rd, Greg kept his cool – and 3rd place.
After the race, a weary Greg Kroef emerged from his helmet admitting “I think I was looking in my rear view mirror more than I was looking in front”, such was his quest to hold off Ross.
And despite the weekend hosting 15 utes – the biggest field of the season, racing was remarkably drama-free with only newcomer Tim Griffith sidelined with mechanical issues.
The UDC V8 Utes now take a Christmas break, resuming hostilities in the new year at ‘Thunder Down Under’ 24-25th January in Timaru.
