[ Summary | Qualifying | Race 1 | Race 2 ]
Round 1
Manfeild, Feilding
25th and 26th October 1997
Brett Riley in the immaculately prepared Castrol BMW 320i stamped
his driving authority 
emphatically
on the first round of the New Zealand Touring Car Championship
at Manfield in the Manuatu with a maximum points result, gaining
pole position on Saturday 25th October for each race and the winning
both races on Sunday 25th October.
In the process he set the fastest lap , beating British Driver Julian Bailey's record on the longer 4.5 km circuit. This completed a hat trick for Riley who now holds the lap record at Manfield for touring cars in normal direction, reverse direction and long circuit. Standing in for Craig Baird who had overseas commitments, he left no-one in any doubt that he has lost none of his desire to win. It must give BMW Motorsport very confidence that they can take an unprecedented 5th Touring Car title this season.
Riley's newly promoted team mate, the talented Jason Richards had mixed fortunes racing the BNT BMW 320i. Lighter than the BMW 325i he piloted the previous two seasons, two laps into the first qualifying season he entered the fast left hander at Toyota very quickly and the back end of his car snapped out on fresh rubber. The result was a high speed shunt into the concrete barrier and considerable work for the BMW pit crew to get the car back onto the track for the second qualifying session.
The morning qualifying session saw Riley in the Castrol BMW 320i take pole with a 2.00.680. A solid performance from Peter van Brugel (2.02.039) in the Beaurepaires Nissan Sentra SSS placed him second on the grid, but 1.5 seconds off Riley's blistering pace. The Albert Street Dental Care Ford Telstar of Barrie Thomlinson (2.03.792) and Collingwood Mowers Ford Telstar of Geoff Short (2.04.491) secured third and fourth spots respectively, with Robbie Ker in the Placemakers Toyota Corona rounding out the top five with a 2.05.090.
Times in the afternoon qualifying session were predictably slower with about a second separating the top five qualifiers. Riley was again on pole with a 2.01.210 and Peter van Brugel's 2.02.489 was enough to get him up next to Riley. The most noticeable change was Jason Richards (2.03.222) securing third spot on the grid in the BNT BMW 320i. Barrie Thomlinson (2.04.336) and Geoff Short (2.05.085) rounded out the top five.
Full Race Report
The weather on Sunday morning was overcast with the threat
of rain. After having initially made an excellent start, Brett
Riley in the Castrol BMW 320i uncharacteristically missed second
gear, providing his rivals with a second opportunity to move on
him. By turn one Riley found himself at the back of the leading
pack and with a lot of hard work ahead of him, with van Brugel
making
a clean exit to lead, ahead
of Thomlinson and Short who were two wide and Richards behind
them on the outside of the curve. A misfiring problem which plagued
the Wilkinson Insurance Corona 2000 of Ross Heffernan all weekend
ended his chances of staying with the leading group.
On to the Castrol Esses, where Richards darted up the inside of Thomlinson, with Riley hard on the charge behind him. Through the left hander at the Goodyear hairpin and Riley ducked under Richards and the pair diced side by side up the Deny Hulme straight each trying to squeeze a little extra performance out of their identical cars. At Champion van Brugel is well clear and taking advantage of the drama behind him, with both Richards and Riley still duelling and Short ahead of them but in their gun sights.
Running a little wide at Champion, Richards moved on Short down the outside, Riley taking a tighter inside line. By the end of the straight Short looked like the meat in a BMW sandwich and was finding it difficult to defend his position. Into Shell for the first time and these three cars attempt to fit in a space that barely accommodates two! Riley charges past the Ford Telstar, with Short going wide and Richards forced to go even wider. Richards mixed fortunes struck him for a second time as he lost traction on the grass and spun onto the inside of the field, undamaged but lossing valuable time. All the while Thomlinson who has been hanging off the back of the pack after a huge moment at Champion that saw a cloud of dust explode from the back of his car, follows Riley through into third place.
Riley now set off in pursuit of van Brugel who had carved a handy 3.5 second lead over him. With a clear track ahead of him and a full stack of steam, Riley pushes the Castrol BMW 320i hard, setting a new lap record (2.00.720) for the 4.5 km version of the circuit in the process. Braking very late as the pair enter Turn One for the third time and van Brugel's rear-view mirror was now filled with the BMW's bright red radiator grill. The Nissan Sentra looked strong and smooth but didn't have the legs to hold off the insistent Riley. Showing that motor racing requires brains as well as brawn, van Brugel gives Riley racing room under braking at Champion. If there had been two, rather than five laps of the 8 lap race left, Riley would have found it considerably more difficult to pass van Brugel than he did.
By now
a very light drizzle had begun to fall which provided little more
than nuisance value and wasn't affecting the track significantly.
With Riley past van Brugel and consolidating his lead, attention
turned to Jason Richards who had recovered from his off and who
was hard on the charge after Geoff Short in fourth position. The
gap by fourth lap was about 13.5 seconds, but with each lap the
gap between them became visibly smaller. Richards had the BNT
BMW 320i's engine singing, putting in the second fastest time
for the race (2.02.150) and reducing the deficit by about 3 seconds
a lap. Mike Eady was having a lonely race out in front of 1600
cc Class, with the Peugeot and Nissan's dicing further down the
field.
At the chequered flag Riley crossed the line 2 seconds ahead of van Brugel, with Thomlinson a further 2 seconds behind van Brugel. Jason Richards continued his pursuit of Geoff Short but the gap proved to be too great, with Short sticking to the task to beat Richards across the line by 3.5 seconds.
The rain that had threatened in the first race swept across the Manfield Track in the period leading up to the second Touring Car race of the day. With the rain still falling gently and the skies threatening to open once more, most teams opted for full wet weather tyres, including championship leader Brett Riley in the Castrol BMW 320i. In a last minute decision, unknown to Riley, his team mate Jason Richards in the other BMW 320i changed to intermediate tyres betting that the track would tend to dry out during the race. This choice proved to have a significant effect during the second half of the race.
A reverse grid was formed for the second race, with Robbie Ker in the Placemakers Toyota Corona and Geoff Short in the Collingwood Mowers Ford Telstar on the front row of the grid, with the Albert Street Dental Care Ford Telstar of Barrie Thomlinson and Jason Richards in the BNT BMW 320i on the second row, followed by the two top qualifiers, Brett Riley and Peter van Brugel rounding out the top six.
There were no mistakes from Riley at the start of the race and it quickly became evident why he is considered a wet weather specialist. He quickly established a healthy lead over the pack as the spray kicked up behind his Castrol BMW 320i. At this point Riley had the race well undercontrol and appeared to be heading for a second emphatic victory. However, by the sixth lap the weather had begun to clear and the pumping action of the wet weather tyres began to dry the track, particularly on the far side of the circuit through Toyota, Chris Amon and the Ken Smith straight.
It then became evident that Richards in the No. 2 BNT BMW 320i was noticeably quicker through the dry parts of the circuit and was rapidly catching Riley who had built up a 3 - 4 second lead. Within two laps Richards had put in the fastest lap of the race (2.13.351 sec) and was all over the back of Riley's car. Adding to Riley's problems were increasing stretches of dry track, heating his tyres, reducing grip and making it very difficult for him to stay on the track.
An interesting psychological battlethen began to develop between the two BMW team mates, with Riley believing that since he was using similar tyres to Richards there was no reason for Richards's car to perform better than his own car. Conversely Richards knew that Riley was on deteriorating tyres and that with consistent pressure Riley would eventually have to either relent or fall off the track as a consequence.
However, two factors played into Riley's hand.
1. Riley didn't know Richards was on different tyres and
2. Due to an administration error the race finished two laps earlier than Richards had anticipated!!
It was a titanic battle as Richards made repeated attempts to get past an equally determined Riley. Richards was able to get better drive through the dry parts of the circuit, Riley driving on the limit to thwart his efforts. Several times Riley lost grip through Champion and the corner onto the main straight, mustering all his skill to deny Richards his position. Praise goes to both drivers, who could have easily taken each other out of the race, but instead provided a fantastic display of skilled driving.
Once the BMW duo had passed him, Barrie Thomli
nson
settled into a lonely third spot. Peter van Brugel wished he had
developed a second engine management package for the wet as he
found it difficult to get the power of the Nissan Sentra SSS down
on the road. Due to the position of the power band he either found
he got wheel spin as he accelerated, or he was working the engine
below its most responsive and finding the car sluggish. He finished
the race with a creditable fourth.
At flag fall Riley flashed across the line 2.5 seconds ahead of Richards who had made a last desperate attempt to pass Riley at Dunlop getting a little out of shape.
Brett Riley made an excellent start to his season, starting as he means to continue, with a maximum points score. Adding to his delight will be the double points score awarded in Round 1, giving him a total of 90 points, with van Brugel on 56, Thomlinson on 51 and Richards on 50 points.
