SAVED by Sunday ... that's the reaction of Masterton Motorplex event organiser Bob Wilton to the weather at the weekend. The season-opening Hood Aerodrome meeting, traditionally the club's biggest money-spinner, got off to a stuttery start with the Import Shootout on Saturday and burnout competition that night being cancelled due torain. Sunday was brilliantly fine and the organisers did a great job running both those, plus the scheduled test and tune day for the V8s. "Takings are down but we're pretty happy, and I reckon people got good value for money," Wilton said. Masterton mechanic Scott Miller won his race to do some passes in his big top alcohol dragster, after a hurried trip to Wanganui on Saturday for final tuning. They got the new 1500hp Ford engine running at 11pm Saturday, rushed back to Masterton, and after a few last-minute tweaks he set off down the strip for a "leisurely" 9.9s, 173mph run. That, incidentally, is the fastest he has ever gone, his previous best 171mph The 20-year-old hopes to reach 200mph this season. There were a few new cars on Sunday, including a very tidy Morris Minor and an "interesting" pink Nissan S-Cargo delivery van (with a grunty Pulsar turbo engine under the bonnet). Interesting too to see a young woman, Jenny Gibbons, competing in her 1968 Plymouth GTX convertible. Jenny's a third-generation racer, with dad Matt also competing on Sunday. Her grandfather, the late Bob Gibbons, was a leading New Zealand racing driver who competed in the New Zealand Grand Prix.
