Auckland driver Leo Bult won the first race of Round 4 of the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing Series North Island Championship at Pukekohe Park Raceway today.
Bult had qualified second fastest behind championship leader Rex Edwards of Tauranga who took the $500 Premier Insultation Pole Award earlier in the day and the duo proceeded to battle it out for the entire 8 lap race. Edwards led all the way until the hairpin on the last lap of the race where Bult grabbed the lead and the win. Edwards crossed the line second at the end of a battle that both drivers thoroughly enjoyed.
Simon Baker of Wellington was third while Auckland drivers Karl Gaines, Warren Crowther and Lance Gerlach rounded out the top six.
Terry Edwards of Waihi put in a fine performance to cross the line in seventh place after putting his car into the tyre wall at Turn 3 during qualifying which resulted in damage to the car.
A fantastic field of thirty-nine cars faced the starter and the race was largely incident free with good clean action throughout the field. Seventh and eighth fastest qualifiers, Matt Horne of Masterton and Sam Dashfield of Auckland, had a coming together at the hairpin during the race, which was deemed to be a racing incident with Horne placing ninth at the finish and Dashfield eleventh.
A number of Mazda MX5’s were part of the field and it was Dean Evans who was the best of those competitors.
Tomorrow, on the final day of motor racing at the iconic South Auckland circuit, series competitors will line up for a 10-lap top ten reverse grid race at 9.20am with their final outing of Round 4 over 8 laps at 1.27pm in the afternoon.
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