Round 7 - Manfeild - Race 3

!! NZ Production Racing Series Championship Winner (Class B) 2007 - 2008 !!

Well that was an awesome way to finish the season! Dale finished 1st in his class again, and 2nd overall, so a convincing win for the round overall this weekend and also the year. Congratulations Dale!

Also congratulations to Simon Sceats, who took out the championship in Class C, the 4wds.

The car is now being pulled apart under the supervision of Motorsport NZ's technical services team, to check everything for compliance with the rules. They wanted to pull the turbo out but that's a major job on this car so that'll have to be sealed and checked back in Auckland.

We're off to the podium for the presentations now, so hopefully i'll get some good photos to post a little later on.

Round 7 - Manfeild - Race 2

The rain came at just the right time for us this morning, and with a race in hand Dale has won the championship!

He had an excellent race, driving really well in the wet as usual, and came in 1st place Class B and 4th overall. It was a long race, 12 laps, and Dale was in the first three for most of it. Another great result though and now Dale is so far ahead in the points table he doesn't even need to start the last race!

Overall race time was 17:22.217 (5th place was 17:22.715 Scott McKelvie, 2nd place in class B 17:49.162)

Dale's fastest lap 1:25.821 in lap 8 & 11

So there's one more race to go this afternoon, at 2:05pm, and then we can celebrate. The team has got to be proud with the final results, truly the reward for a lot of hard work.

Round 7 - Manfeild - Race 1

Dale finished Race 1 in 1st place in his class (7th overall). He had a good run, pretty clean but a small incident at the hairpin with Michael Modgill left some white paint & a little panel damage on the car.

Dale's fastest lap time was 1:20.317. His overall time was 10:52.547 (8th place 10:53.734)

The team's going to do some minor setup changes this afternoon, then we'll call it a day. It's another great result for Dale, with only 2 races left in the season the end is in sight!

Round 7 - Manfeild - Qualifying

Dale just came back in after a great Qualifying run, out in 1st position for his class, and only 1 second behind the 4wd cars. It looks like the latest work on the car is paying off, so well done team!

Dale's fastest time 1:18.709 in lap #2 (2nd fastest in Class B: 1:19.844 - Mike Modgill).

Everyone's pretty happy with the way the car ran so there's nothing much to change before the first race this afternoon at 2:35pm.

Round 7 - Manfeild - Testing

Back in Manfeild again for the 7th and final round of the NZ Production Racing Series. We're racing this weekend with a few improvements, not least of which is the new Diff, but also a larger exhaust and a little more power c/o our friends in Napier & the UK, Ecutek (http://www.wrcdevelopments.co.nz/).

This weekend has a different lineup of classes than usual, with the Production Racing taking centre stage, along with the V8 Development Series. There's also the Pro7 RX7s, OSCAs (with a few nice Corvettes & a Jaguar), along with other classes from the Tier 2 Motorsport classes.

It's a beautiful sunny morning here today, forecast for 28 degrees, so its going to be a warm one.

There's three testing sessions today, with the first we've just had @9:30, then 11:40 and 2:30pm. There's also a sponsor's Hot Laps sessions this afternoon at 4:30 (so hopefully I might actually get out on the track today!).

The first test sessions saw the return of our Manfeild 'glowing brake' syndrome :-( Straight after the first lap or so & the brake rotors were fully glowing. After a few more laps they were so hot they ceased on, so Dale had to cruise back into the pits.

When he got in the brake dust was on fire the rotors were so hot! So there's some work to do on the brakes...Hoodie & Dodge have them in pieces on the floor at the moment.

Oh and the other casualty this morning was young Mr Hood, with a nice crack to the forehead (c/o a hospitality truck closely parked during the wheel alignment). So he's been to see the lovely folks @St John for a nice big plaster, which he'll be sporting for the rest of the day. (no sympathy till Renee arrives though!)