Dominant V8 Utes Win for Glen Collinson at Teretonga

In a busy weekend for the UDC V8 Utes at Teretonga, Glen Collinson drew first blood winning Race One of the hectic 4-race program. Jake Stoneman finished second (by just 0.332 sec) and Phill Ross was third in a race where barely 14 seconds separated first from tenth.

Teretonga is a circuit none of the drivers had raced on before – not that you’d know that from their qualifying times. Yet these Teretonga ‘virgins’ had four testing sessions, a practice and a qualifying session to learn the nuances of the world’s southern-most FIA-recognised racing circuit.

Brad Kroef, V8 Utes champion for the past two years, was fastest for all testing & practice sessions, capping it off with a blistering qualifying lap more than half a second quicker than the rest.

Collinson slotted in second. Ross continually whittled down his lap times to qualify third. Stoneman racing Stu Monteith’s Trade Depot Holden was fourth – quite an achievement given his late call-up to race the ute and despite his ‘Stoneman Race Tech’ duties preparing several utes in the field.

So given how evenly-matched these Ford and Holden utes had been, we knew Race One Saturday afternoon would be intense.

When the lights went out, Collinson unleashed a dominant driving display. After getting ahead of Brad Kroef on lap 1, Collinson held the lead to the finish – but not without constant pressure from Stoneman. Stoneman clung onto Collinson’s rear bumper from laps 1 to 8; the two crossing the finish line barely a ute-length apart.

Right behind them it was a similar story. Just after the start, Ross snuck through on the inside of pole-sitter Brad Kroef before Turn One to keep a grip on third place. Despite constant pressure from Brad, just 0.403 seconds separated them at the end. Further back, Brad’s father Greg Kroef was engaged in hand-to-hand combat with Daniel Ludlam. Greg found a way past Blair Gribble-Bowring early in the race, but getting around Ludlam was another story – the two finishing a mere 0.13 of a second apart. Tight.

The duels continued right to the back of the field. Dave Robb is the UDC V8 Utes’ Technical Officer, but this weekend he was also racing the Vernon Developments Ford FG Ute. Dave hassled the more experienced Bruce McRae for more than half the race only managing to get past him on the final lap.

With less than 14 seconds separating first from tenth, we believe this could potentially have been the closest UDC V8 Utes race to date. So after the lap record was reset at Timaru in January, history keeps being made for the UDC V8 Utes. With three more races on Sunday and a one-hour enduro race for some teams, who knows what other milestones will be achieved?

Race 1 Results:

Header Image: Dillon Photography