In a phenomenal showcase of historic racing, Ruapuna hosted a jam-packed field of classic cars at the 36th Skope Classic.
In a 21-car grid for the John Fairhall Historic Touring Cars, Stu Rogers took his Nissan Skyline GTR to pole over Kayne Scott’s Nissan Primera, beating out heavyweights Greg Murphy in a Honda Accord and Steven Richards in a Group A Nissan Skyline.
In the first race of the weekend, Andy Greenslade drove his Ford Sierra RS500 to the top step from sixth. After dropping back in the initial laps, Murphy climbed back from fifth to second place while pole sitter Rogers limped across the line to fall back to sixth at the flag. Steven Richards set the fastest lap with a 1.30.778.
Andy Greenslade made good use of the power in his RS500 to shoot into the lead by the first corner of the second race, but Richards responded quickly, reclaiming the lead under braking a few corners later. The first six cars pulled away in a train and provided some great wheel-to-wheel racing, ultimately ending with Scott taking a narrow margin over Kane Lawson in the 05 Peter Brock Commodore.
Richards led from lights to flag in race three, but certainly did not have it all his own way, with Rogers taking second place after his DNF and DNS in the first two races. Rogers went one better in the final race, taking his Skyline to victory to end the weekend.
Muscle car racing was up and roaring in New Zealand as the Central Muscle Car series and Mainland Muscle Car series combined to form a 31-car grid with lots of action.
Andy Knight took his Chevrolet Camaro to pole over Angus Fogg in the iconic black and gold Mustang and Nick Ross in an all-white Dodge Challenger. Knight kept up his form of late to drive away from the field to take a three-second victory over Fogg, with Craig Boote jumping Ross at the start to take third.
With a handicap setup to race two, Knight and Fogg started just over a minute behind the leader with many cars to pass on the way to the front. Steve Noyer ultimately took victory by over five seconds over Grant Crosby. Both Knight and Fogg put in a monumental effort to climb up to fifth and eighth overall, respectively. Fogg jumped Knight at the start of race three, but couldn’t keep the fast Camaro of Knight behind, who made his move on lap five to take victory by just over a second.
Noyer also enjoyed victory again in the fourth and fifth races of the weekend with another five-second victory over the Torana pair of Clarke Hopkins and Lance Hughes in race four. However, Boote pushed him all the way to the line with a narrow margin of victory of just over a tenth. Fogg’s Mustang took home the fastest lap of the final race, capping off a thrilling weekend of muscle car action.
All Practice, Qualifying and Race Results can be found HERE
Header Image: Neville Bailey
