Pukekohe Park Raceway’s final race meeting has been run, won and blown away by a bunch of Mazda MX-5s, including our own.
After 60 years, the curtain fell last weekend on the iconic home of Auckland motorsport, and as part of the Speedworks three-day event, the MX-5 Racing NZ series formed part of the show, mixed in with the Mazda Racing Series.
As the third round of the 12-race MX-5 Summer Series, DRIVEN has entered the series and is faring quite well: 3rd in round one, 2nd in round two, and last weekend’s new track, new challenge at Pukekohe was even more special, being part of the final race meeting.
With a maximum of ten MX-5s allowed and entered, mixed in with 30 RX-8s and RX-7s, the four-round championship was close, but with series leader Nick Cummings overcoming a last-round crash and full rebuild, he was stuck in Hawke’s Bay due to the flooding, leaving the other kids to play in the Puke.
Our DRIVEN and Fairview Motors Hamilton-supported black & gold MX-5 has been improving throughout the season, with consistent finishes over all races, finishing 3rd and 2nd over the first two rounds, and holding a very slender second-place in the championship after Taupo.
With the most recent improvements being a gearbox overhaul, fixing worn selector forks, burred gears and worn synchros, and replacing the odd, gummy, yellow sludge with proper gearbox fluid. Oh, and a new clutch and skimmed flywheel, because it’s already all out.
So to Pukekohe for the final time, with tow-time thanks to our Ford Ranger 2.0 BiTurbo: three days of practice, qualifying and three races with grids based on qualifying times, reverse-grid, and combined results respectively.
Having never raced there before, our DRIVEN MX-5 set good pace in practice, 177km/h on the fourth-gear limiter into the epic turn one, with the option/debate of whether to select fifth raging all weekend. This really is an amazing corner, and the MX-5s flew through there, almost flat, around 170km/h. And, our DRIVEN MX-5 is fastest in practice one!
Qualifying
Into a 15-minute qualifying, getting a clean lap in a field of 40 Mazda was not easy, but one clean, quick lap managed a 1m:22.5s time to put us on pole position, 0.2 quicker than two-time series champ Markku Braid, and another 0.5 secs back to 19yo Dom Fransen, a mega effort given it's only his second year racing, where he took over the MX-5 from his dad, Carl, and his best qualifying effort to date; ahead of the second round third-placed Oliver Sapsford by 0.1 sec and another 0.1 back to ex-pat Texan Matt Dilly to round out the top five.
Race 1
Lined up for race one, a big bottleneck into the first series of corners, it’s a lucky dip picking which car to follow, but a braking duel into the back chicane ultimately put us into first, just ahead of Markku.
Within a lap we were all over the slick RX-7 of David Ferguson, presenting its own challenge of him being faster in a straight line, us being quicker through the corners, while trying to fight our own battle.
After a good battle for a few laps, the RX-8 of Leon Davis came into our picture, balling both of us at different times and corners, but once he cleared off, our battle with Markku remained until the eight laps, by a gap of 0.3 secs, with Dilly claiming 3rd, a further seven-seconds back.
Race 2
With the grid reversed for race two, we literally started last: 40th from the 40 grid spots, but 10 laps to get through.
Big bottleneck for the first few corners and then pick-a-lane, then after one lap, an RX-8 was into the wall coming onto the start straight, a classic Pukekohe crash. This put out the safety car and a big concertina effect from cars going slow past the crash scene, and then setting off at race pace, catching us out on the restart. And then after the restart, going for a deep brake, trying to avoid nailing Tim Wilde’s orange MX-5, had a backwards spin, and lost around 10 seconds, recovering to climb back another two spots to finish 4th, with Braid taking the win, ahead of Sapsford and Dilly.
Those results put us on P2 for the final 8-lapper, alongside Braid, for the final MX-5 race around Pukekohe.
Race 3
The last blast around Pukekohe! And eight laps of pressure to be the final victor in the MX-5s before the track’s closure. Off the line, it’s the same traffic jam into the first set of corners, with the slower RXs hampering the MXs, allowing Markku to get a jump, and our car being balked and dropping to third, before a move back into second. For a few laps, it was RX-7, MX-5, RX-8, MX-5, until the RX-8 made a move on Markku’s MX-5 through turn one, slowing his pace and opening up a gap to slot into and behind the RX-8, and take the lead.
RX-7 and RX-8 continued to battle, slowing our speed and allowing Markku to get close again, and it stayed that way, fighting both the faster rotaries who’d scoot off in a straight line, while trying to have our own battle for a few more laps.
Then it all came to an abrupt halt when a safety car was called out following another big RX-8 crash at turn two. Being lap seven of eight, we followed the safety car for one lap as the chequered flag waved, with our MX-5 taking the race win! And ahead of Markku Braid and Oliver Sapsford.
So pole position and two race wins was a huge success, but still not good enough for the round win, with Markku taking a race win and two 2nds for the round win with 209 points to our 204, ahead of Oliver Sapsford in third.
That also means our DRIVEN MX-5 actually sits in the championship lead by just one single, solitary point, after nine of the 12 races in the series, going into the final championship-deciding round at Hampton Downs. With 75 points for a race win, and three races over the weekend, it’s hairdryers drawn at dawn, May 6-7.
More info: www.facebook.com/MX5RNZ
Championship Points (after 3 rounds/9 races)
1. Dean Evans 539
2. Markku Braid 538
3. Oliver Sapsford 425
4. Matt Dilly 406
5. Shane Hayter 372
6. Nick Cummings 367
2023 MX-5 Racing NZ Summer Series
Rd1, Jan: Chris Amon Circuit, Manfeild
Rd2, Feb: Taupo Motorsport
Rd3, Mar: Pukekohe Park
Rd4, May 6-7: Hampton Downs
