15 Sep V8s, SUPERCARS AND CLASSICS IN KILLARNEY THRILLER
Even the weather gods approved as the ‘big dogs’ of Killarney, the thundering V8 Masters, came out for the Power Series event presented by Wingfield Motors and Kfm 94.5 on Saturday 12 September. They were accompanied as always by the Makita Supercars and there are also races for the combined Millstock Cars Pre 1980/Pre 1990 cars and Bejo Trustees Fine Cars.
Marcel Angel qualified on pole, split seconds ahead of Fabio Tafani and Sean Moore. These three got into a huge dice in Race 1, which was cut short when Tafani dropped out on lap six, leaving Moore to chase Angel to the line, finishing less than half a second behind.
Tafani’s departure promoted Richard Schreuder to third, just 0.667sec ahead of hard-charging Rui Campos, while Jason Ibbotson, Roderick Simpson and Denis Gaiduk were the first three Silver Class drivers home, in seventh, eighth and ninth overall respectively.
Meanwhile, Ryan McCarthy, Andrew Moffit and rookie Hilton Pieters led the Supercar charge with McCarthy a clear winner ahead of a hotly-disputed battle in which Pieters passed Moffit on lap six and held on to take the place by a scant 0.295sec. Stuart Spooner took Supercar Silver honours from Ilan Kaplan and Craig Massyn.
Moore came up from fourth on lap one of the second race to pass Campos for the lead on lap four and pulled away to finish almost five seconds clear, with Schreuder and Brian Evans close behind in third and fourth respectively. Angel and Tafani, meanwhile, got stuck in traffic and finished eighth and ninth respectively, behind Silver Class leaders Alister Brown and Ibbotson.
McCarthy, Pieters and Moffit finsished in that order again after another Supercar dogfight, with Menno Parsons leading the Silver Supercars, well ahead of class rivals Massyn and Simpson.
Race three was reserved for the Makita Supercars only, led all the way by McCarthy, while Pieters fought back from fifth on lap one to finish second, albeit 16 seconds adrift. Cedric Lebon was third, ahead of sole Silver Class finisher Massyn.
Charles Arton qualified his indecently quick Datsun 240Z on pole for the Classics races but it was Michael Hitchcock in the Cross Cape Mustang who grabbed the lead at the start of Race 1, with Arton in hot pursuit until the Datsun went out on lap seven.
That handed Hitchcock an unchallenged win, well clear of Malcom Uytenbogaardt in the Carter’s Granada Perana and Geoff Bihl’s Porsche 944.
Gunther Appelgryn (BMW E36) and Rob Toscano (Technoparts MX5) led the Fine Car field to finish eighth and ninth respectively, less than a second apart, with Fred Phillips’ Morgan third in class and 12th overall.
Hitchcock led led Race 2 from lights to flag, chased all the way by Uytenbogaardt, who finished less than four seconds adrift, while Wayne Lotter in the Killarney Gardens Motors Escort held off a determined challenged from Bihl to come home third, less than half a second ahead of the Porsche.
Toscano aced the Fine Cars division in 10th overall, well clear of Applegryn, Phillips and Rodney Green (Piri Piri MGB), who finished a lap down in 12th, 13th and 14th overall respectively.
Uytenbogaardt mounted another challenge to Hitchcock’s dominance in Race 3, only to have the Granada go sick on lap five, leaving the Mustang to romp home 30 seconds ahead of an epic battle for second that saw Bihl, Lotter, Dave Alhadeff (Alfa GTAM) and Herman de Kock (Ford Escort 1.8L) finish in that order covered by just 2.539sec at the line.
Toscano notched up another Fine Cars win, 11 seconds ahead of Phillips, ninth and 10th respectively overall, with Appelgryn the final finisher on the lead lap in 12th overall.