The weather, well some people have their holidays late January to enjoy minimise being rained out. Qualifying at Taupo justified that logic, but it was fun and should have mixed the Race one grid up a bit. Perhaps no one told Andy Duffin that, he just climbed aboard the ex Ferg #46 and broke the rules. Bob Smith could be forgiven for ruing the return of Andy as he surely was the dead cert pick in the wet for pole but P2 was his spot with Shannon doing a masterful job of claiming P3. Tim Forster is growing in confidence and it seems that he is now so familiar with his car that moving forward is merely to be expected. P4 ahead of Stu would have been satisfying for the HB express.

For Pro7 Plus, everyone was going to fill each of the front 3 rows since a dismal 6 entries for this flagship category brings into question the commitment of Plus car owners to protect what should be our shop window. No doubt there is a few hurting from business downturn and admittedly the core of the Plus Group composition lies with the self employed so it will be a while before the numbers rise once again. Brodie Scott was there though and he made sure everyone knew that by qualifying P1 ahead of Martin Hicks. Yes that’s right, Martin popped off the second fastest Q lap marginally quicker than rocket man Lockwood. Hanley Steel and Fothergill filled the remaining places.

Sunday dawned with clear skies and the overnight wind had chased the rain south leaving the track warm and the drivers happy.

The start of race one was incident free and the pace was on right from the get go. Andy was in win mode and waltzed off to an unassailable lead, in fact by race end he crossed the line 6 seconds ahead of the second placed Bob Smith. One thing about these Wanganui guys, the seem to have a knack of separating racing from relationships. If you watched the battle between bob Smith and Stu Hewer you would think they had a problem with each other. Wrong, the fact is these two have spent so many years dicing at tracks around the country that all we need to do is sit back and enjoy the ride. One thing is manifestly clear though, Smith is older, thus a little more canny whilst Hewer falls into the traps so cleverly laid by the old master. Any aspiring Pro7 driver would be silly not to watch these two at work.
Shannon and Tim spent some time amusing each other but it was Forster with the upper hand by race end. Dave Goodwin is another second Generation Pro7 adherent and his run in the ex G Hill #33 car showed his pedigree. Although he qualified 5th, 6th after 6 laps was a great effort, and the car looks smart too.

Brodie may have made a statement in qualifying but he certainly stuffed it up in Race One. Maybe not his fault but Matt Lockwood could care as he ran away to win the first heat. David Steel is the man on a mission at present and how good is it to see the #6 car up there in second place at race end. Good driving some excellent three abreast braking at the entry to the chase left spectators spell bound, actually on the last lap it was looking like 4 wide under brakes but whatever, it was good to watch. So the result was Lockwood, Steel, Hanley Scott and Fothergill in a car that did not suit him well at all.

Race two from the usual reverse top ten was going to even the odds a bit. 6 long laps of Taupo should get the back row somewhere near the top half by race end but no one told Duffin that. The intensity of race two was red hot right from flag drop. Duffin had some unpredictables to ponder as he carved the back markers who in the main are usually front runners remember. Blythe had scored a lowly 7th in race one so he was starting from row two and as the senior player around that area he got a great start and dashed into the distance. Not sure what happened to Phil Kerr as he got lost in the pack early on but Bob and Stu were at it again, this time it looked like take no prisoners applied. Problem was though Bob had Scott Harrison, Tim Forster and Phil Kerr to beat if he was to go for 3rd place and the sweeper was the place to do it on the last lap. An overlap of throttle and clutch, a bit of grass beneath the tyres and the pass that was to gain 4 places ended up a spin that lost 3. The order at the flag was Blythe narrowly holding out Shannon Ferguson, Duffin claiming 3rd after a race from the back and Harrison Hewer, Forster and Kerr. It has to be said that Shannon Ferguson has really matured this season. Both races showed he has become a genuine racer keeping his nose in there but losing the compulsive urge to go where risk outweighs results.

Pro7 Plus seem to have the uncanny knack of making small grids look like big grids and although Fothergill retired from race two, the remaining quintet did all they could to again keep our attention. The performance parity here is so close that driver wits is all that it takes to gain or lose advantage. Once again the drag down the main straight saw a gaggle of cars all trying to out psyche each other into the chase, even NZV8’s don’t seem to manage the act these guys achieved. Brodie Scott made amends for his race one disappointment with David Steel again finishing second. Lockwood Hanley and Hicks finished in that order.

This was round one of the NZ Champs and Phil Blythe had spent far too much time on Saturday procrastinating whether to return to Wanganui to get his car. The grid by points race 3 is always the best indicator of where our drivers are in the scheme of things. If they have enough points to be at the front of the grid then they are generally the ones everyone else is trying to emulate. A great race to finish the weekend saw close racing, lots of passing and better still no grief.
Duffin did the business after seemingly protecting Ferguson but then seemed to realize this is a NZ Champs round and a S1 title would be nice to have. Ferguson finished second, (see what I meant earlier) Smith and Hewer continued the Wanganui battle of wits to finish in that order.

Pro7 Plus saw David Steel seal a well deserved win in race three. Brodie Scott wanted the win but Steel had it covered from start to finish, Scott would have enjoyed the challenge set by Steel and Hanley was there all the way waiting to advantage himself if these two gave him the chance. Myles (or lack of them recently) Fothergill seemed finally have sorted the gremlins in the ex Prosser rocket but Lockwood finished 1 place ahead of him to claim 4th place.

Generally all seemed to agree that this meeting represented a turning point in the season. The number of people proclaiming this to be their most enjoyable racing of the season so far coupled to a very productive forum at the BBQ has set the stage for a good second half of the 209 calendar.