Five-time Bathurst 1000 winner Steven Richards set the fastest lap in the Archibald’s Historic Touring Car class qualifying session at the annual Skope Classic motor racing meeting at Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park on Saturday Feb 01.
At 1:29:013, the time, set driving the late model (1996) ex-Kelvin Burt BTCC Volvo S40 Super Tourer owned by local businessman and keen classic racer Lindsay O’Donnell, was just over a second-and-a-half quicker than the 1:30.652 set by Phil Mauger’s Nissan Primera ST in second. And it was just over three seconds faster than the 1:32.037 fourth quickest qualifier Stu Rogers set in his twin-turbo Group A Nissan Skyline BN-R32 4WD ‘Godzilla’ replica.
Yet Richards, the now 47-year-old second-generation driver, who has been racing professionally for over 25 years and who spent the early part of his career racing SuperTourers in period, didn’t mind admitting that he had his work cut out trying to keep ahead of several of the other car/driver combinations which were part of the 26-strong grid.
“The mix of cars in the class over here is one of the reasons - some of those older Group A cars are still really fast in a straight line – but I think another (reason),” said Richards, “is that the standard of driving has got better as the guys here do more driving and get more familiar with their cars.”
Any thoughts the man Aussie fans refer to simply as ‘Richo’ might have had, in fact, of taking it easy would have been well and truly dashed early on the opening lap of the first Archibald’s series race on Saturday as he came under immediate attack from first Stu Rogers then eventual winner Michael Lyons, who for the first race was subbing for car owner Phil Mauger.
The entertainment continued in the second race later in the day with Steven Richards, Greg Murphy and Stu Rogers this time disputing the lead until the last lap when Rogers threaded the needle in a daring move to take the lead down the circuit’s long start/finish straight and make it two different winners from two starts.
After the relative cool of the first day of competition on Saturday, one of the Canterbury region’s infamous hot, dry nor-westers blew in overnight, turning Mike Pero Motorsport Park into a 30 degree C+ cauldron on Sunday.
The action on track turned out to be just as hot with a large crowd again flocking to the fences whenever the Archibald’s Historic Touring Cars were called up.
With Stu Rogers’s Gp A Skyline side-lined for the day with a blown head gasket, and Phil Mauger back in his Primera an early DNF, it was Scott O’Donnell this time who took the battle to pole man Steven Richards in the first Archibald’s series race of the day.
The car O’Donnell drove at the meeting, the ex-Rickard Rydell BTCC Ford Mondeo built and run in period by the Prodrive team is one of the last – and definitely most sophisticated – Super Tourers built, and O’Donnell capitalised on a canny start and clean run up to and through Turn 1 to catapult from fourth to first place on the first lap.
Richards was never more than a second or two behind, however O’Donnell held the lead until half way thru the third lap when Richards found a way past then held onto the lead – albeit by a margin over a fast-closing O’Donnell of just 0.254 of a second at the flag – for his first race win of the weekend.
Richards also won the final race of the meeting – but not before the field ran four-wide off the rolling start with the distinctive yellow Gp A Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth of Brett Stevens steamed up the inside from P6 on the grid to P1 as the field accelerated away from the first turn and headed off to Turn 2.
Richards was able to close the gap under braking for the Euromarque Hairpin and through the infield complex and was back in the lead by the second lap. But Stevens was not finished, and spent another heady lap in the lead before finally succumbing to the superior braking and handling of the Richard’s Volvo S40 but hanging on all the same to finish a weekend best 2nd, a final blast up the start/finish straight reducing the margin to Richards to just over half a second.
“That, in a word,” said Greg Murphy, as he was surrounded by fans and well-wishers in the Archibald’s Historic Touring Car Series marquee on Saturday afternoon, “was entertaining.”
And no one in the large crowd that gathered at the track on either day could disagree!
