Three cylinders was enough:
McCALL GETS TITLE FIGHT BACK ON TRACK WITH GWAVAS WIN
Tony McCall - Winner Gwavas 2008
Manukau’s Tony McCall has won the Gwavas 175 endurance race in the Hawkes Bay in a spectacular return to form after his spectacular rollover at the first round of the 2008 Asset Finance New Zealand offroad racing national championship.
Hamilton production-class racer Maurice Bain held a joint lead in the championship in his Nissan Navara V6 going into Sunday’s tough forest-based enduro, but it was McCall who blasted effortlessly to pole position in qualifying, followed by the fast unlimited class cars of Rob Ryan and the sport’s president, Ian Foster.
The race was held at Gwavas Forest, southwest of Hastings in cold conditions with constant overcast threatening – but never quite delivering – heavy rain. At the race start, McCall made the most of being first on the road – and running in “clear conditions” – to establish a lead he would never lose.
Behind him the field bunched up, drivers struggling to keep their goggles and windscreens clear of mud.
Many followed each other off the race course in a compounding series of mistakes that divided the field and let McCall and Ryan disappear into the mature pine forest while confusion reigned behind them.
Delayed with the others who had taken the wrong turn, Foster began a spirited fight back toward the leaders. Beachlands driver Neville “Max” Smith, South Head’s Raana Horan, Albany racer Richard Crabb and Woodhill 100 winner Clive Thornton of Whakatane were among the group that went with him.
In the narrow going under the trees, Hawkes Bay’s Lofty Harrington fell victim to the wet conditions in his Toyota Hilux. Reaching to turn off his wipers, Harrington slipped off the outside of a corner at high speed, smashing the front suspension out of his truck on a substantial pine log.
“By the time I looked up the truck was sliding off into the bush, I only had time to flick it in between two trees and then it smashed into this big log lying under the scrub and fell over on its side,” he said afterward.
Also out with a jammed gearbox – for the second event in a row – was Drury’s Grant Ferguson, who had won the unlimited class at the first round of the Championship in March.
McCall, meanwhile, had extended his lead to two minutes at the end of the first lap, completing the 22.5 km course in less than 17 minutes. His car’s Porsche-based flat four engine had developed a misfire at the start line when a fuel injection unit became blocked, and the car was still misfiring as it set off into the forest on the second lap.
Second out of the forest was Rob Ryan in his Ryan Honda VTEC single-seater, followed by Roger McKay in his V8-engined Nissan Safari.
Roger McKay 2nd in Class 9th overall
Ryan and McKay would hold second and third for several laps,
McCall’s misfire persisted, but the Manukau racer was still able to add one minute per lap to his race lead. His SFL/PPG Cougar Evo is the sport’s most successful race car and has an eleven year race-winning pedigree.
Behind him Rob Ryan was making the most of clear racing conditions to maintain and consolidate his second place, while McKay’s Nissan was beginning to trail smoke as the big truck’s transmission lost fluid. He was overtaken by Neville Smith, putting in a well-paced drive in his turbocharged Cougar Honda VTEC.
When McKay pitted for fuel, he lost his class lead to Raana Horan in his massive black Nissan Safari V8. Richard Crabb also slipped past into fifth place, Clive Thornton following close behind and taking up sixth overall.
In the final stages of the race, as McCall headed into the forest on his last lap – still misfiring - the McKay truck came limping out of the forest and into the pits.
“I think the trans is fried. It stopped smoking a while back because it’s pretty much run out of fluid,” he said.
McKay was able to get the truck moving and nursed it through one last lap to finish second in class 8 for ThunderTrucks, salvaging a top ten finish and edging out Bay of Plenty racer Gary Baker in his Nissan Navara V8 who made up an all-Nissan class result in the big truck class despite finding the narrower tracks almost impassable in the big Nissan.
Raana Horan came home the ThunderTruck class winner.
Young Drury racer Nick Hall won the Workshop Super 1300 class, the sole surviving car in the class at race end.
Nick Hall - 1st time racing @ Gwavas takes the win in Class 5
Richard Crabb put in a gritty drive to win the Leader Products Super 1600 class and finish fifth overall ahead of Malcolm Langley (Whakatane).
Paul Thomas won the VW 1600-engiend Challenger class after Shaun Dickins and Troy Tufnell both failed to finish; Greg Mullins rolled his bright yellow Challenger trying to get out of the forest with no brakes but managed to take fourth in class.
Glenn Turvey of Wellington was the only class four truck entry and brought his Toyota Hilux home safely to secure the class win.
Championship leader Maurice Bain had been second in production class for much of the race, pipping fellow Hamiltonian Nigel Newlands in an outbraking battle at the end of the final lap to win the class.
The next round of the championship is also an endurance race, the Nelson Auto World Ruff’n’Tuff on July 5. There, local driver Dennis Andreassend gets his chance to draw level with Christchurch driver Wayne Moriarty on home turf; the South Island can once more draw level with the North Islanders in what many race fans are picking will be the most hotly contested championship in the history of the sport in New Zealand.
Results, 2008 Gwavas 175.
Tony McCall, Cougar Evo, 1
Rob Ryan, Ryan Honda, 2
Neville Smith, Cougar Honda VTEC, 3
Raana Horan, Nissan Safari V8, 4
Richard Crabb, Toyota, 5
Clive Thornton, Southern Cross Holden, 6
Melvin Rouse, Nissan, 7
Malcolm Langley, Bakersfield Toyota, 8
Roger McKay, Nissan Safari V8, 9
Paul Smith, Eagle Nissan, 10
story by Mark Baker
Veritas Communications Limited
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