President: Bob Louie 027-4504888

Secretary: Brent Thompson (acting) 029-2013851

Treasurer: Shayne Morgan 021-744543 or 09-5339220

Series Co-ordinator: Terry O’Brien 027-2428153

Series Scrutineer: Brian Hamilton 027-4393284

Committee: Kevin Hyde 027-4726155 Geoff Page 021-2237127 Brent Thompson 029-2013851 Terry O’Brien 027-2428153

Newsletter Editor: Bob Louie 027-4504888 or 04-2971693 Bob.louie@xtra.co.nz

Website: www.ss2000.co.nz

Brent Thompson 029-2013851

PR & Sponsorship: Committee Members

SS2000 Club Contacts:

Season: 2009-10

May 2010—Issue #: 64

Going into the final round, Malcolm Glen had the slim-mest one-point margin over David Geraghty, so neither could afford to relax. After qualifying 4th and placing 2nd in the first race, Glen had one hand on the championship trophy. He then backed this up with two wins in both handicap races and in the end, he claimed the Motul SS2000 Championship by a margin of 55 points.

The season was not com-pletely smooth going though as small reliability issues plagued Glen in the early rounds and this allowed Ger-aghty to build up a healthy points lead. However, as the season wore on, Glen’s reli-ability improved when it

counted and he slowly re-duced the deficit.

It was a very convincing per-formance by Glen in the final round, a performance that his nearest rival couldn’t match on the day.

Championship Glory to Glen!!

In Martin Dunn’s case it wasn’t third time lucky, but the third time in a row where he has taken out the Honda Challenge for yet an-other season. It was also the third time that he has also won the 2000cc class in the Honda Chal-lenge series within a series.

Driving the newer DC5 Integra this season, Dunn has shown that again consistency and a 100% finishing record can produce a top result. (For those that don’t know, the DC5 Integra has been noted to be a more difficult chassis to tame than its predecessor, the DC2.)

Translate this to the Motul SS2000 championship, Dunn managed to finish one place better than last season with 4th overall, which also saw him net the 1601-2000cc

Dunn Honda champ yet Again!!

SS2000 CLUB NEWSLETTER

www.ss2000.co.nz

Series Sponsors:

class title for the second time in two seasons.

2 Litre Racing at it’s Best!!

No one could have scripted a better end to his champion-ship, but I guess what now remains is, will Glen be back to defend his newly acquired title next season??

It now remains to be seen, who will take the “challenge” to Dunn for next season??

Hi Everyone,

Wow what a final round it was. The weather was kind and we had another good turn out of 26 cars, including our two guest drivers

from the South Island, Matt Dunn and Na-than McAuley. Overall, both these drivers acquitted themselves well amongst our regular field and by all accounts, did-n’t upset our championship contenders too much. There is a possibility that we will return the fa-vour in the not too distant future, some-thing for our Club to work

upon.

This has been one of the closest finals for outright championship

contention and it was good to see the two closest rivals, Malcolm and Dave, wishing each other the best prior to the round starting. It was also very light hearted of our series co-ordinator, Terry, to present each of them the “number 1” as it was very much a lottery.

However, congratulations to Malcolm and his crew for win-ning this season’s champion-ship and also to all the other place-getters, both overall and in the respective classes. You all deserve your rewards for the effort that you have all put in over this season.

The season was also topped off with the hiring of one of the track’s corporate suites and it proved most welcome amongst all. The barbeque function and lucky prize draw function was well attended as a beautiful sunset descended across Taupo Motorsport park. Thanks to Karen, Judy, Lucy, Shannon, Gavin, Dan, Brent and to all the others that have helped out across the season with these post race functions.

Presi’s Pit Box

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The biggest thankyou must go to our sponsors, Tim and Kay-from Motul, Steve from Auck-land Engineering Supplies, Dave Black from Racetech, Dunlop NZ, Canvas Concepts and Positive Images. Your sup-port has been most welcome and has helped contribute to yet another very successful season for SS2000.

From a president’s point of view, it certainly has been a rather quick season and has not been without its ups and downs. All this aside, I would like to thank the committee for providing some much needed support during the times it was most needed and trust me, I have certainly learnt a thing or two. However the AGM will be my last official duty as presi-dent as I will not be re-standing for this position going forward.

So see you all at the forthcom-ing AGM.

Cheers ….. Bob

Motul Products available directly from: Motul NZ Ltd

4/121 Elliot Street,

Howick, Auckland.

Ph: 09-5358514

Email: Tim@motul.co.nz

Or: Kay@motul.co.nz

Ensure you identify yourself

as an SS2000 Club member

THANKS!!

The SS2000 Club Register wishes to thank this season’s series sponsor:

Motul Oils. Without this support we would not have

been able to conduct yet another successful season.

Page 3 SS2000 Clu b N ewslet te r

Pit shirts and Posters still available!! Pit shirts are still available for all Club Members and

supporters.

Cost to Club members is $40.00 and to non members

$55.00.

Sizes: S, M, L, XL, 2XL.

We also have copies of our 2009-10 SS2000 series pro-motional poster available at no cost. Would look really

great on any smoko room or office wall.

Contact:

Bob on 027-4504888

Bone—Third & Top N/A again!

Remit time—Time to get Serious!! It’s time for the talking to stop and to get your remits down on paper.

Tips for remits:

• Read the rule you wish to alter and carefully re-word appropriately your change

• Ensure the intent of your remit is clear and avoid ambiguity

• Avoid personal agendas and think more about the effect your remit will have on our rac-ing series as a whole. Will it prove beneficial to the majority of competitors?

• Do your homework and feel free to discuss/ share your proposed remit with others to get feedback. Ask a committee member for help if required.

• Don’t leave it until the last minute.

REMITS CLOSE 11.00am Sat. May 22nd, 2010.

For the second year in a row, Rick Bone has placed his Datsun Coupe in 3rd place overall in our Motul Oils SS2000 champion-ship. This has also put the Da-tsun as the highest placed natu-rally aspirated engine car, not bad for a 1600cc capacity.

Bone started the season on high being the overall winner of the first round at Taupo back on Labour weekend 2009. Round 2

at Pukekohe was to prove a diffi-cult one for Bone despite it being his home track. An off track ex-cursions and a collision with Noblett’s Integra, was a bit of a set back.

However, he continued to place highly in the remaining rounds but not without experiencing some unneeded gearbox issues along the way.

Above all this though Bone and

his team were al-ways prepared to go to any lengths to ensure “points” were a priority by repairing the car and getting it to the grid every time.

Another great ef-fort and well done again Team Bone.

Taupo turned on typical autumn weather over Easter weekend for the final round of our series. 26 cars fronted and we were in for a tight finish in many areas of the championship.

Qualifying— Rick Bone (Datsun Coupe) showed he was not giving up his chase for an-other top finish in the champion-ship by claiming pole on a 1:40.887. Matt Dunn (Corolla turbo and the first of our South Island visitors), claimed 2nd and Trevor Strong (Civic 2ltr) placed 3rd. Next was championship leader Malcolm Glen (Nissan 200SX) after a minor spin at turn 1, ahead of the second South Island competitor, Nathan McAuley (EVO3), whom had blown a clutch during Fridays’ practice session. Martin Dunn (Integra) kept his chances of advancement live by qualifying 6th, with Phil Brown & Grant Te Rito (both in Corollas) behind him. David Geraghty was 9th after his Lancer started to suffer overheating and Tim Pollard (Integra) made up the top 10. After showing great promise, newcomer Warwick Levis driving Roger’s quick red Civic, blew his motor and ended his weekend prematurely. Brent Thompson (Civic) was to also suffer some-what with gearbox failure and did not qualify but was able to continue the weekend once a replacement was fitted.

Race 1– Bone got away cleanly from pole but Geraghty surprised everyone by storming momentarily from 9th through to 2nd. Matt Dunn held down 3rd but would eventually make his way to the front and would re-main there. After a conservative start, Glen worked his way back up to 3rd getting ahead of Ger-aghty who had slipped back to 4th. Strong held down 5th ahead of McAuley’s EVO 3. Martin Dunn (Integra) had the close company of Te Rito and Brown for most of the opening laps but both Te Rito and Brown would eventually make their way past him, leav-ing Matt Foster (Telstar) to take up the challenge to Dunn. Fur-ther back, Richard Gee (Civic) spun at the turn 11 sweeper and was now circulating slowly. By

mid-race, with Matt Dunn still out front, Glen had now moved ahead of Bone to be 2nd. McAuley had overtaken 4th place ahead of Strong whilst Geraghty lost ground and slipped back to 6th. Further back Phil Noblett and Tim Pol-lard, both in Integras, tailed each other for a number of laps as did Adrian O’Donnell (Corolla) and Scott Smith (Civic) until O’Donnell’s car suf-fered a broken exhaust. Shayne Morgan (Sentra) joined in the battle ahead of him involving Rik Wake-lin (Civic), Matt Dovey (Civic) and Mike Connolly (Escort). A mistake at the corkscrew by Dovey, al-lowed Morgan through on the last lap though. At the tail end of the field Eric Budd (Levin) had a boost hose come off hindering his progress. So Matt Dunn took the chequered flag ahead of Glen in 2nd, McAuley 3rd, Strong 4th, Bone finished 5th with an ailing gearbox, Geraghty 6th, Te Rito 7th, Brown 8th, Martin Dunn 9th and Foster 10th.

Race 2 (Handicap) - Duncan Hedges (Datsun Coupe) and Connolly were the first starters for the first handicap race, with Hedges leading. Wakelin, Morgan & Hamilton were not far behind. O’Donnell was the first car to retire after coming off at turn 3 and then parking it on the infield at turn 5. Smith, Dovey and Noel Anderson (Civic) were having an early dice whilst Martin Dunn, Te Rito and Brown were repeating their battle of race 1. Of the faster cars, Matt Dunn had got past Glen after Glen had taken an early advantage. Strong had an off at turn 7 and retired with a lack of brakes. Shortly after Budd and Anderson also retired as well. At the halfway point, Hedges looked to hold a commanding lead

Glen Victorious in final!

Page 4 SS2000 Clu b N ewslet te r

from Connolly, Wakelin, Morgan and Hamilton, but the mid pack had closed in already. Glen now tailed the field with Bone just ahead but both were now on the march forwards. By lap 6, Glen had moved to 8th and his nearest champion-ship rival Geraghty, was only 3 cars ahead. To-wards the end, Smith’s Civic slowed with a sus-pected gearbox problem but just managed to keep going. With Hedges having led for 7 of the 8 laps, he finally got over-taken by Geraghty on the very last lap with Glen behind him when they crossed the line. However, Geraghty copped a break out time penalty, effectively handing the victory and championship to Glen. Geraghty was relegated to 2nd, Martin Dunn was 3rd, Bone 4th, Matt Dunn 5th also suffered a break out penalty, Brown 6th, Gee 7th, Connolly 8th, Foster 9th and McAuley 10th. Both Hedges (who actually crossed the line 3rd) and Wakelin were two others who would also suffer breakout penalties.

Race 3 (Handicap) - This time the top 5 starting order was Connolly, Hamilton, Hedges, Mor-gan and Wakelin. Behind them though Anderson and Gary Wilson (Civic) clashed not long after the start, sending Wilson into a half spin, forcing both to retire. Wilson was also lucky not to be collected by a fast start-ing O’Donnell. Morgan was the next to retire with a suspected blown gearbox. Meanwhile Pol-lard and Noblett were repeating a battle from race 1 as were Martin Dunn & Brown. Bone would eventually catch Dunn and Brown with

Round 7 … continued:

Page 5 SS2000 Clu b N ewslet te r

McAuley not far behind. Geraghty was making a last ditch effort by keeping a couple of cars be-tween himself and Glen but Glen would soon slip past the Lancer driver on his way to the front. Geraghty then lost ground when he went wide at the turn 11 sweeper. At the corkscrew, Noblett spun when attempting a late brake on O’Donnell, the Corolla unavoidably clipping the Integra sending it into a slide. By lap 6 Thompson had caught and past both Wakelin and Connolly to lead the race. Pollard was next to retire with a bent wheel and he was followed shortly after by Strong with re-occurring brake issues. Geraghty was yet another to retire with a broken fan belt and O’Donnell got a punt at turn 5 dropping him further down the field. Thompson still held the lead with a lap to go but Glen was soon to over-whelm the Civic to take the lead and the victory. Thompson was 2nd, Matt Dunn 3rd, Bone 4th, Foster 5th, Wakelin 6th, Noblett 7th, Brown 8th, Te Rito 9th and Martin Dunn 10th.

So Glen proved a bit too strong for Geraghty and not only took the round honours but also the championship for this season. Bone and Brown were 2nd and 3rd respectively for the last round. Geraghty’s consolation was 2nd overall in the championship, whilst Bone placed 3rd overall.

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• Date: Saturday 12th June, 2010

• Venue: Suncourt Hotel & Conference Centre in their “Boardroom”

14 Northcroft Street—Taupo

• Start Time: 11.00am sharp

Lunch and some refreshments provided

• Remits and Club personnel nomination forms available via our website, www.ss2000.co.nz, under Documentation.

• All remits close 11.00am Saturday May 22nd, 2010

Remits published by 11.00am Saturday 5th June, 2010.

• A good attendance is encouraged as your input helps to shape our club for the future.

• AGM is followed by our Prize Giving.

• Recipients of Club awards and trophies are encouraged to be present.

• An informal dinner may follow for those staying overnight.

Well here we are at the end of yet another season. The only thing left to conclude is our AGM and prize giving which is still about a month and a bit away. However, it gives everyone extra time to shape and register their remits, time that we had not necessarily had in the past. So take the time to think sensibly,

think about how your remit will impact on the Club’s future foot-print and most impor-tantly avoid wholesale changes to our rules.

Over the past years our

Club and our racing series has be-come very strong. Our predecessors have proven that mere tweaking of our rules has resulted in us main-taining our core of competitors with some subsequent continued growth, so we must be doing something right. Compare this to other Clubs and I can assure you that some are struggling to replicate what we have already achieved.

It can also be said that it’s the Club personnel that makes it a success and this seems to be on-going despite the “changing of the guard” on occasions at our AGM. I can honestly say, that those that are elected to our Club Execu-tive positions, do have the Club’s best interest at heart and in some cases have done so for many years. There are currently many of our Club members whom feel exactly the same and so come the AGM, don’t be shy of volun-teering your services for some of these positions. Put a bit back into your Club which has allowed you an avenue to ex-ploit your passion of motor racing. There will always be a number of core people around to assist, so its not like you are on your own. Think of it this way too, new personnel even if it is only one or two, can also mean some new and refreshing ideas to carry the club forward.

As we head into our off sea-son, there will still be plenty happening on the various tracks around the country.

Pit Exit …. Editorial

The various winter series held by Manfeild and Taupo, to name a couple, always sees a good contingent of SS2000 racers competing. There is also the Alan Stewart organised “Honda Cup” series which is also held at many of these meetings for a lot of our Honda drivers to compete in. Both allow a good avenue for more track time and for drivers to stay in tune over the winter. The Honda Cup has also inten-tionally or unintentionally be-come a “feeder” for a number of drivers wishing to step up to SS2000 racing. I believe at least 4-5 drivers that competed with us at various stages this season, had migrated from the Honda Cup held last winter.

So if you are competing over the winter, it would be great to know how you got on and I would encourage you all to once again contribute any snip-pets of information or news to me.

Otherwise, I’m going to have a very quiet winter!!

Cheers …….. Bob

2009-10 SS2000 AGM and Prize Giving.

Page 7 SS2000 Clu b N ewslet te r

SS2000 thanks its Associate Sponsors

Stick with Dunlop

0800 803567 www.dunlop.co.nz

Dunlop Motorsport supporting SS2000

Talk to:

Alastair Corbett

or

Richard Fraser

Ph: 04-528 8009

For embroidery, screen printing, apparel, promo-tional items, safety gear, branding, logo design,

illustration, graphic design, business cards, sign-age & brochures. Phone: 09-4241262

Suppliers of the SS2000 2009 Pit shirts

Manufacturers of a wide range of awnings and shade sail related

products for commercial and residential use.

Phone: 09-3774350

(Suppliers of the SS2000 door number panels, windscreen banners

and other decals.)

Suppliers of a broad range of tools and products for the engineering

and trade sectors

154 Beaumont Street, Westhaven, Auckland Ph: 09-3580910

Supporters of the SS2000 Saloon Car Championship 2009-10.