V8 champions to stretch Bell

Much of the interest at next weekend's New Zealand V8 Championship round at the Powerbuilt Tools Raceway will centre on whether Christchurch's Eddie Bell can match the pace he showed at the opening round at Pukekohe and take the battle to champions Kayne Scott and John McIntyre.

One of the support classes, however, might steal some of the limelight as the new Historic Touring Car class takes to the track.

The Canterbury Car Club has done a good job in assembling the field, with examples of, or replicas of, Jaguar XJS, Holden Commodores, Group A Sierra Cosworths and BMW 635s and M3s, along with a sprinkling of early 1970s Australian Championship contenders including R/T Chargers and Holden Toranas.

Altogether, 16 different makes and models will be represented in the Historic Touring Car category.

It will be interesting to see how much pulling power the Southern Saloon Series has for spectators at the Ruapuna Speedway tonight. Saloon cars rarely venture onto Ruapuna because saloon grades are contracted to Woodford Glen but with a full programme, the Woodford Glen Speedway Association passed up the opportunity to run the Series and Ruapuna obliged by providing a venue.

Ruapuna hosts a round of the War of the Wings Sprintcar Series on Saturday night while Woodford Glen has Superstock teams racing and the Canterbury Super Saloon and Streetstock championships.

The Glen Eagles Superstock team to race Nelson has a strong look about it with national champion Malcolm Ngatai being joined by Brad Rosewarne, Shane Anderton, Jason Smith and Aaron Rowlands.

The second round of the Kumho South Island Pre 65 series was held at Timaru Raceway last weekend at a low-key meeting. Invercargill's Wayne Tuffley (Mustang) heads the overall point standing after two rounds, ahead of Dunedin's Jim Kelly (Mustang) and Christchurch's Gareth Hall (Chev Nova). Evergreen Christchurch racer Maurie Bone (Anglia) has thrown down a strong challenge to John Michelle (Cortina) and leads Class C, and is also fourth in the overall standings.

Former Toyota Racing Series driver and multiple kart-racing champion Matt Hamilton must be rated a good chance in next weekend's Mini Challenge round at the raceway. Hamilton finished strongly at the Pukekohe meeting, but his Team Kiwi Racing team-mate Ryan Bailey topped the points score. Hamilton is fourth on the points table and will carry 15 kilograms of ballast at Ruapuna.

- © Fairfax NZ News