Promains Formula Open New Zealand (FONZ) had their fourth round of the series at Pukekohe Park Raceway, Auckland, in late February at the Jim Palmer Tasman Revival Meeting. This meeting was very special because it is the last time Wings & Slicks cars will ever race at the iconic South Auckland track. There was a decent sized crowd there to enjoy the racing with FONZ, F5000, Historic Formula Ford and Formula Juniors all celebrating the different eras of single seaters that have raced at Pukekohe since 1963. There were also good fields of saloon cars in several different classes.
Saturday qualifying got under way in damp conditions and fifteen cars headed out onto track all touring around looking for a dry line. It was sad to see Kenny Smith pull into the pits after only a couple of laps with electrical gremlins in the ex-Marcus Armstrong Tatuus FT50.
However, once a dry line appeared they all got down to business with first Liam Sceats posting the quickest time only to have Sam MacNeill pip him by a few tenths and then with in the dying seconds James Watson put in a flyer in the Swift DB4 to put it on pole only to have MacNeill steal the pole back off him as the chequered came out.
So Race one on Saturday afternoon saw the front row consist of MacNeill on pole with Watson alongside with Liam Sceats in third place and series rookie Kaden Probst in fourth position. Tom Alexander was next in sixth finding the set of tyres he was trialling from a Formula Four car not up- to the task of keeping the FT50 in the game. Watson got the jump on MacNeill at the start who soon was under pressure from Sceats, Probst and Alexander. Watson opened up a gap as the FT50’s behind him battled for second down to sixth.
A Safety car on the third lap to recover Zac Christensen’s FT40 that had been struck by electrical gremlins brought the pack back together. Of course, this played into the hands of Leo Francis in the other FT40 who was now leading the Jim Palmer Cup.
On the restart Watson led away with a hard charging Liam Sceats chasing him hard. With a couple of laps left to run Watson hit a wet patch going into the hairpin and went wide onto the grass letting Liam and Tom Alexander through. So, at the line it was Liam Sceats 1st, Tom Alexander 2nd, and James Watson 3rd.
Race two saw the Swift DB4 of James Watson lead away from the line with Liam Sceats and Tom Alexander with Sam MacNeill fending off Kaden Probst and Gary Rush in another of the Swift DB4’s. Another safety car before the first lap was completed while Zac Christensen’s FT40 succumbed again to electrical issues once again handing the lead of the Jim Palmer Cup to Leo Francis.
On the next restart Watson again got away using the extra horsepower of the Toyota 4AGE and one lap later the Safety car was out again. This time Gary Rush had a spin in the middle of the back straight when his steering wheel came off in his hands. He hit the brakes which in turn threw the car into a spin, luckily everybody missed him. Needless to say there were only two racing laps in which James Watson brought the black & yellow swift home in first place from Liam Skeats and Tom Alexander.
The final race was the feature race for the Graeme Lawrence Cup and the Jim Palmer Cup supported by Black Fox Electrical and The Fitness Portal respectively and was supposed to be over ten laps but due to the amount of safety cars throughout the day time was running short so the race was shortened to eight laps. Thankfully the whole race ran without incident. This time Zac Christensen managed to keep the FT40 running and manged to hold out Leo Francis from getting a clean sweep of the round for the Jim Palmer Cup.
Next meeting out we are looking forward to Hayden Bakkerus joining the series in an FT40 and the return of Paul Couper with his new engine so there should be more up for grabs in this class..
Once again James Watson got the jump on Liam Sceats at the front but as the race wore on James’s Avon slicks that are nearly a season old started to give up and Liam started to close in making several dives on James at the hairpin finally making one stick to take the lead and then Tom Alexander who was now back on a set of Hankooks also claimed second spot from James at the hairpin and that is how the first three crossed the line for the final ever FONZ race at Pukekohe.
Whist there appears to have only been three guys featuring at the front this do not tell the true story of the racing. The fact is the fastest laps of the first six cars were only six tenths of a second apart with the remainder of the field all within 2 seconds of each other as well. That is close racing.
Speaking of the rest of the field, there was action aplenty right throughout the day with Kaden Probst and Sam Ma Neill squaring off all day and Gary Rush really getting the Swift DB4 going better and better after suffering ignition issues for the last several rounds Gary has had little seat time and was getting quicker as the day wore on. Grant Rivers in the immaculate ex POPE Racing Swift DB4 has got faster with each meeting and was thrilled to get into the 59’s.
Grant is a well renowned Drag Racing competitor but has fallen in love with ground effect Formula Atlantics and will only get faster. The father and son duo of Richard and Fergus Crabb had a great day with Richard back in the car for the first time since early last season and Fergus getting quicker with each meeting and it won’t be too long before he is right up with the front mixing it with the experienced guys. Fergus’s background is Off Roading and drifting so with only a season in the FT50 under his belt he is starting to look like a threat to the established circuit racers.
Of the other three Geoff Harriman had a steady weekend in the Promains sponsored FT50 whilst series new comer Fraser Windelburn in his Ford BDA powered Swift DB4 is becoming more and more comfortable in the car in only his second ever race meeting.
Last but by no means least the legend that is Kenny Smith only got two laps in with the Tatuus FT50 before it succumbed to gear change issues once again. Kenny ever the philosophical one proclaimed that at least this will motivate him to get the 1990 NZIGP winning Swift DB4 ready for the start of next season.
That wrapped up the final ever wings and slicks racing ever to run at Pukekohe as it closes on the 4th April this year. It was fitting that the meeting was named after Jim Palmer as he was the first man ever to drive the track on a press release day in January 1963 in a Brabham BT16. It was also fitting that Kenny Smith at least started a race at this last ever wings and slicks event as he raced a Cooper sports car at that first meeting.
The end of the day was very emotional for not just the FONZ competitors but all of the other classes as well because at the end of the meeting there were a lot of people hanging around and they were all saying they did not want to leave as we all knew this was the last time we would ever see this famous exhilarating and historic race track again.
“Goodbye Pukekohe and thanks for the memories”
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