Local ace Michael Collins (Leda GM1) got within 0.168 of a second of claiming a qualifying/race win/quickest race lap clean sweep at the penultimate round of this season’s SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series in Christchurch over the Feb 06-07 Waitangi Day long weekend.
That was the difference between himself in second place and the winner of the category’s new ‘rolling-start-handicap’ race on Sunday morning, Shayne Windelburn (Lola T400),
”I definitely was close at the end,” said Collins, the defending SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 series title holder and 2020/21 season pace-setter. “All credit to Shane, though, because he got to the line first.”
Category stalwart Windelburn also won the handicap race at the first round of the 20/21 series at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon in November last year. But he stopped well short of saying he was an expert at the format.
“Particularly here (At Mike Pero Motorsport Park) where I’ve only raced the Lola twice before.”
That said, when he saw the handicap he had been given he decided he was “definitely in with a chance” and once he got into the lead, it was “amazing how motivating it is to have a bunch of quick guys like that behind you!”
As it turned out the weekend became one of celebration for the Auckland man, and his travelling companion, nine-year-old son Joshua.
Each year at the Skope Classic meeting local man Steve Weeber awards the Stan Redmond Memorial Trophy to the driver in the SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 category who exhibits the same sort of selfless enthusiasm for the cars and category as his late friend Stan Redmond did.
This year he awarded the trophy to Shayne Windelburn.
Unfortunately, an unusually high rate of attrition in Saturday’s race carried over into Sunday with both Anna Collins and Tony Galbraith out for the weekend, Collins thanks to a broken valve spring, Galbraith with a gearbox issue. Gearbox issues also side-lined Tim Rush (McLaren M22) between the second and third races on Sunday.
With category stalwart Russell Greer (Lola T332) already out after his ex-Graeme Lawrence car suffered some damage to a corner of its monocoque after a coming together in the category qualifying session on Saturday morning, it meant that a smaller field of eight cars was flagged away by the starter of the second race, won – just – by Shayne Windlelburn from Michael Collins with Kevin Ingram (Lola T332) third and Glenn Richards (Lola T400) fourth.
It was Michael Collins again all the way though in the feature final, from former NZ Formula Ford class champion Kevin Ingram (Lola T332) and David Banks (Talon MR1), the latter finally enjoying a trouble-free run (after all sorts of mechanical issues through practice, qualifying and the first two races).
The SAS Autoparts MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series is organised and run with the support of sponsors SAS Autoparts, MSC, NZ Express Transport, Bonney’s Specialised Bulk Transport, Mobil Lubricants, Pacifica, Avon Tyres, Webdesign and Exide Batteries.
