Round 2 of the South Island Hatton Horsefloats O.S.C.A.

Round 2 of the South Island Hatton Horsefloats O.S.C.A. series was run at Teretonga Park, Invercargill last weekend and the three Southlanders were all very keen to be top dog in there home town. Colin Dawson led the way in qualifying with a sub 60sec lap time which was under Lawrence Knowlers' lap record but he couldn't pull another one out in the race. Knowler filled the front row with Matt Cronin 3rd and another local Andrew Cundall with his turbo Levin 4th both on 61secs. Chris Hatton had the Hatton Horsefloats Camaro in 5th on a 62.44 with Laine Etwell next on a 62.46. Geoff Washbourne was close behind in 7th with Bruce Davidsons' Corvette next and rounding out the top 10 was Pierre Neame in his Capri and Raymond Harts' Skyline.
 
Matt Cronin made a lightening start from the 2nd row in race 1 but unfortunately it wasn't to be as he left the diff behind after only a few metres. This left the three V8's of Dawson, Knowler and Hatton to fight for the win with nothing separating them as they roared around the Teretonga track line astern looking for ways past each other. They finished in that order with Etwell 4th, back a few secs with just not quite enough horses to keep him on the back of the front three. Cundall blew a gearbox putting him out while Washbourne had a tyre blow out heading down the long main straight which in turn ripped some of the rear suspension out. That put Neame up to 5th just holding out a race long battle with Hart and Davidson and Garth Somerville 8th with his first visit to the track.
 
Race 2 gave us the reverse grid but the field was getting a bit bare with so many having trouble in the first race. The three V8's again put on a great show and this time it was Knowler who took the win narrowly from Hatton after Dawson spun and wound up 4th behind Etwell. Hart was next with Somerville 6th getting more used to the great Teretonga track.
 
The last race of the day was the traditional handicap and this time it was Etwell who got the luck of the timekeepers to score his first win in O.S.C.A. Hart held onto 2nd after losing two gears at the start of the race with Knowler again just getting the better of Hatton and Somerville holding on the round out the top 5.
 
The next round is at Powerbuilt Tools Raceway at the Lady Wigram Trophy meeting in January and doubles as the first round of the N.Z. O.S.C.A. Championship. With 7 North Islanders making the trip South and over 20 cars on the grid its shaping up as a great meeting to be at.

 

Overall round 2
Knowler        82
Etwell          78
Hatton         75
Hart             68
Somerville     59
Dawson        53
Neame         21
Davidson      19
 
GT2
Knowler      87
Hatton       79
Dawson      55
Neame       23
Davidson    21
 
GT3
Etwell      90
Hart        81
 
GT4
Somerville    90

 

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