> PDL Motor Racing Classic 2001 (a race oddessy?)
>
> This year the Southern Festival of Speed roadshow travelled the South
Island of New Zealand from south to north during February. Teretonga,
Dunedin hillclimb, Dunedin sprints, Levels and then Ruapuna. This had two
effects; firstly many of the drivers that did the whole series were in the
groove and perhaps less prone to error. But secondly some of the machinery
had begun to cry
> "enough". The end result was good close clean racing in most if not all
> classes. The carnage that had been a little evident sometimes in the past
was
> noticeably absent. However the overall field was only about 170 cars, with
the real star cars being a little absent.
> Affecting the fields for the whole series was the Queenstown Street Race
litigation factor. This resulted in the replacement of the Dunedin Street
> racing with a Street sprint format. At least one notable overseas entrant
of Italian exotica apparently cited this as part of the reason for not
coming over this year. A pity, as from all reports the day was great fun and
yet still challenging. The silly scheduling by Motorsport NZ of a Classic
race meeting at Pukekohe on the same weekend as PDL also would have helped
limit the field of Aucklanders coming south to experience our hospitality.
> However it must be said that with a new vigour in the promotional efforts,
that at least the crowd turn out was estimated as a record, 15,000 for the
> weekend. Perhaps it was good to have that little extra space in the pits
for all the onlookers. And it was great to get the TV coverage, even
extending as far as US cable channel Speedvision
> As to the turn out of Fiats, it was well short of any records. In the
Small
> Saloon class we were just three. Myself in the 125T, the evergreen ...
white .. and red .. 128 of Alan Symonds, and Blair Bishop in the Abarth OT
> 1300 Rep.
> My weekend was summed up by two words . Dij` vu. A recurrence of the same
> problem as last years PDL, which revolves (or is that evolves) around carb
> venturis moving in their mountings and encouraging the car to run on 3 1/2
> pots. Even more cunning and cheap fixes are in the pipeline. Apart from
> that, on the Saturday (practice and two races) the car ran pretty much
> faultlessly and got me around the track as fast if not faster than ever.
> Alan's racing was slowed by his mechanical misfortune at the series
opening meeting at Teretonga. He was
> thus running a very very second hand (junkyard?)1100cc block and his times
> never dipped below 2 minutes. Blair had his blue beastie detuned a little
> from last year (and running reliably as a result?). He ran with times in
the
> 1:54 - 1:55 bracket until it counted and pulled off a fine win in the
> handicap race and posted a 1:51.79 in the final scratch race.
> Up in the Medium Saloons, Nathan Graham battled away in the 124 Coupe,
> finally managing to get his twin carb set up working. It is fun watching a
> good handling car like Nathan's hold off cars that are faster in a
straight
> line
> Of interest also always is the performance of the Chapman Clan. This years
> efforts by Dennis had stumbled in Invercargill with a solo effort to
shorten
> his X1/9 Abarth Rep and fallen on the hills of Dunedin, when the lovely
> Ferrari 206sp Dino Rep had an intimate meeting with a tree. The resulting
> shoulder injury left Debbie to uphold the honour at the PDL meeting. This
> she did with spirit at the front of the Medium Saloon class. Her duels in
> her still normal length X1/9 with Lindsay O'Donnell in the Alfa GTam,
Warren
> Good in the 2002 Alpina and Tony Cowan in the Torana XU1 were great to
> watch. As to the results, well let me just say that the honour of both
> Turin and Milan was upheld, sometimes. Fantastic also to see Debbie
> exercising the Testarossa.
> Of note also in the Sports and GT class was the Lamborghini Diablo. A
> mystery late entry, and not in the program, it certainly was a crowd
> pleaser. In race trim, this car even featured inbuilt air jacks. However
> impressive looking this car was though, the hard aggressive note to the
> engine was no match to the symphony played by twelve Ferrari cylinders
>
> Other than the usual gaggle of Alfa GTV in various states of tune and the
> Steere's 308GTB, the sole remaining Italian entrant was the lovely
> Stanguellini Formula Junior of Colin Waite. A true piece of history, this
is
> a very early car from a class that helped many a famous name driver become
> so. The good turn out in this featured Pre 65 sports and single seaters
> class perhaps bodes well for future events.
> The non Italian highlight of the meeting for me had to be the duel between
> the two Lola T332 Formula 5000 cars of Ian Cements and Stan Redmond
(driven
> by John Crawford). All weekend they had an immense battle, yet they also
> embodied the spirit of Classic Racing. Fast, close yet clean.
> So we look forward to next year with perhaps more Fiats turning out. It
> would be great to see some more 125T's out and I for one miss the scream
of
> The ex John Palmer FAZA 128. Remember that Classic Racing is not about
> winning, but about exercising your cars in the company of friends, so lets
> see some more take up the challenge!
> Cheers
> Paul
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