Southern 32 - 2024

The series for you!

18 Aug 2024 - Oaklands Park

With many potentially on holiday, Oaklands were pleased to welcome 13 racers for its first S32 event in 6 years.

Qualifying got underway and the racing was closely fought throughout. Home boy Steve Rhodes lead the way from Barry Gilzean and Paul Harwood. Tony Mills joined the party after a first heat DNF along with Oaklands newest member Lewis Gough, who was racing a Genesis for just the second time. Ultimately, series leader Paul came through to TQ with just over 37 laps, a quarter of a lap ahead of Barry followed by Tony and Lewis who was the Clubman TQ.

The Finals started with Clubman B and a superb win for Alfie Wolfe by 3 laps from Dad Mike. Graham Clarke was left to rue a late decision to change tyres just before the final that upset the handling of his car.

Clubman A was a very tight race between locals Steve and Lewis with Steve winning by a third of a lap.

 Clubman B final  

 Clubman A final  

In the overall category, Mike Wolfe elected not to run as the only qualifier for the D final. Ian Howard took the C final from the fast improving Alfie Wolfe by just a third of a lap. With a cameo appearance on race control from the UK'S leading lady racer, Sandy Parker, Steve Rhodes continued his good form by winning the B. Paul H cruised to a comparatively comfortable A final victory from Barry. Lewis gave a strong performance to take third from Tony.

The B final  

The A final  

Paul’s winning
car  

final  

After a lunch break where most people seemed to continue practicing rather than eating, the team race got under way.

After a very messy start with a multitude of track calls reminiscent of the previous weekends racing in Prague, things began to settle down as the realisation of making the car last a full hour set in. Scuderia 66 hit trouble early on but this was quickly diagnosed as a slipping gear and were soon underway again. Another spell of track calls and then it all calmed down again. 15 minutes completed and Harwood Racing lead Wolfe Cub Racing by some 10 laps.

On to stint 2 and the Scuderia get hindered by a lengthy tyre change but once completed, Lewis is setting some impressive lap times on his first outing with a group 12 powered car. Harwood Racing start to strip gears at the end of the stint but maintain their overall lead.

Stint 3 starts with Harwood Racing in the pits for the gear change and after brief stop, Lewis is super consistent for Scuderia wile Graham Clarke gets down   4.6 secs for the fastest lap so far. Stint 4 is Harwoods final one but the car isn't as sharp as earlier and D.O.T with Tony Mills are gaining fast with lap times down to 4.38. As the stint ends, D.O.T| take the lead on predicted totals.

With Harwood Racing finished, the result is out of their hands. Team Whatever! hit either gear or bearing issues but managed to get to the end. Wolfe Cub Racing are flying and young Alfie has a stunning 170 lap run on green lane to record the forth fastest stint time of the race. This is especially note-worthy when you consider he had never seen the track before this morning and they are running a Genesis car.

So, D.O.T win by 19 laps from Harwood Racing with Wolfe Cub Racing a highly commendable third.

The club would like to thank everybody for their co-operation and enthusiasm that helped get the meeting completed at a reasonable time. We hope you all enjoyed it and the traffic didn't delay your trips home too much.

Mick Metcalfe

Thanks to Mick Metcalfe for the report, photos and results.

The next round of the Southern 32 is Timaru on 22nd September.

Copyright © Southern 32, 2024 Photos copyright M.Metcalfe All rights reserved