The South Island team lead the Kelford Cams OSCA North vs South Challenge as we head in to Round 2 at Christchurch’s Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, Ruapuna Park on 22/23 January. The South has 371 points compared with 336 points for the North Island. The final two rounds will be held in the North Island.

The North vs South Challenge is held in conjunction with the Kelford Cams NZ OSCA Championship. The championship is contested in four classes, GT1 to GT4. After the first round, the championship is very close in each class. In GT1 Richard Freeman (Christchurch) on 53 points leads Nigel Sheppard (Christchurch) on 52, Eddie Fairbairn (Christchurch) on 46, Bernie Gillon (Tauranga) on 30 and Denis Running (Auckland) on 27 points. In GT2 Matt Cronin (Christchurch) made it a clean sweep with 90 points from Geoff Washbourne (Christchurch) with 71, Peter Swaney (Timaru) with 70, Lawrence Knowler (Invercargill) and Roger Fawbert (Upper Hutt) both on 48 and Andy Greenslade (Tauranga) on 46 points. GT3 has Mark Crabbe (Christchurch) leading on 70 points from Dave McNaughtan (Christchurch) on 67, Scott Fitzgerald (Christchurch) and Mike Small (Timaru) both on 57, Rob Lewis (Christchurch) on 55 and Chris Coleman (Hamilton) on 44 points. In GT4 Brian Gray (Tauranga) on 87 points leads Cameron Jones (Palmerston North) on 84 and Leighton Hill (Christchurch) on 50 points.

The first round of the inaugural Kelford Cams NZ O.S.C.A. Championship was hosted by the South Canterbury Car Club at the Mike Pero Round on 8/9 January and a big field of cars turned up to put on the show despite the weather being absolutely atrocious!

Qualifying saw the cars go out in wet conditions with you having more chance of winning lotto than predicting the grid for the first race. Bernie Gillon in his Mustang and Matt Cronin in his Levin made it a Powerbuilt front row with Gillon setting a time of 1.10.4 and Cronin a 1.14.2. Peter Swaney was next in his similar Levin on a 1.14.3 from Jeff Judd in his four wheel drive Subaru on a 1.16.2 and rounding out the top five was the turbo rotary powered Mini of Chris Coleman on a 1.17.1. Dennis Running was next in his GT1 Camaro followed by Mike Small (Subaru), Lawrence Knowler (GT2 Camaro), Scott Fitzgerald (Turbo Starlet) and Rob Lewis in his Batman RX7 finalising the top 10. Except for the first few cars the majority of the field was only split by about 8 seconds and some of the rest of the grid were unlucky not to make the top 10 in qualifying. The rest of the field qualified as follows: Cameron Jones in his RX7 was 11th followed by Roger Fawbert (GT2 Camaro), Nigel Sheppard (GT1 Camaro), Geoff Washbourne (Commodore), Richard Freeman (GT1 Camaro), Todd Mudie (Subaru), Dave McNaughtan (RX7), Brian Gray (RX7), Paul Smith (Skyline), Mark Crabbe (Batman RX7), Leighton Hill (Toyota), Evan Munt (Capri) and Dave Agnew's Volvo completing the 23 cars that went out for qualifying. Eddie Fairbairn and Andy Greenslade did not go out due to not having wet tyres.

Race 1 was run on the Saturday afternoon and by now the track was dry so all 25 cars started with what had the makings of a great race due to all the jumbled grid positions. After 8 laps of hard racing by some and lots of passing moves, Gillon's Powerbuilt Mustang proved far too good with a win over Running by 13 seconds and Sheppard a further 11 seconds back in third. Matt Cronin held onto fourth with Knowler, Freeman and Fawbert close in behind and Lewis, Fairbairn and Fitzgerald rounding out the top 10. Swaney was next followed by Washbourne, Gray, Munt, Greenslade and Jones still on the lead lap and just falling down a lap were Crabbe, McNaughtan, Coleman, Hill and Mudie. Unfortunately 4 cars failed to finish, one of which was the fire breathing Subaru of Judd.

Throughout the race there were some great battles, especially with the big bangers trying to get through as quick as possible. Fairbairn used his horsepower to his advantage by getting through to 9th from 24th, unfortunately the biggest person to fall victim of this was Coleman in his Mini going from 5th back to 19th. Sheppard and Greenslade gained 10 positions over the race, Freeman 9 and Munt 8 so plenty of passing was achieved.

Race 2 was held on Sunday morning and since it had been raining all night the track was absolutely drenched. Due to the conditions a number of cars didn't venture out for varying reasons most notably not having suitable wet tyres but 15 cars still went out to brave the conditions. With a great display of wet weather driving, Fitzgerald took the chequered flag while setting a fastest lap 1.5 seconds quicker than anyone else with Small second and Cronin third. Swaney was fourth followed by Lewis, Coleman, McNaughtan, and Jones with Gray just holding off Washbourne, Hill and Crabbe. Unfortunately Gillon had a big moment and hit the tyre wall which showed just how hard the conditions were to drive in.

Race 3 was later in the afternoon and luckily the rain had stopped and the track was basically dry. With the handicapper not having much to go on to work out the handicap it could have been anyone’s race. In the end the race was full of passing and battles throughout the field and it was Cronin who took the win just passing Greenslade at the hairpin on the last lap. Freeman got through to third with Washbourne next followed by Small who just held out Sheppard, Smith and Gray. Crabbe was next just crossing the line half a second in front of Fawbert and Fairbairn who were charging through. Knowler just pipped Jones on the line with Swaney and McNaughtan rounding out the field. Unfortunately Agnew didn’t finish due to breaking the diff on the line, Hill minus his front windscreen and Lewis having wheel issues.

The OSCA put on a credible performance despite the weather conditions and it looks very exciting for the next round at Powerbuilt Tools Raceway at Ruapuna Park on 22/23 January. At present there are 25 entries and just like Timaru these are 25 mixed and very well presented cars.

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