Motorsport: Startline shunt knocks out pace setters

The F5000 field streams down Manfeild's back straight immediately before the startline shunt at the beginning of the second race. Photo / Supplied

Dunedin driver Steve Ross won the feature McLaren Cup Formula Libre Grand Prix at the second round of the 2011/12 MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival Series at Manfeild last Sunday.

Ross took advantage of pace-setters Ken Smith and Jay Esterer being knocked out by a startline crash.

Smith proved the value of his rebuilt car on Saturday, beating round-one winner Esterer in qualifying before going on to win the first race. But the pair got no further than the rolling start in the second race of the weekend thanks to a shower of rain as the field was lining up.

As the lights went out Smith's car snapped hard left on the wet track, clipping Esterer's fellow front row car before hitting the pit wall hard.

Esterer's car also hit the pit wall and came to a stop as the field streamed past but Smith's car glanced off it (the pit wall) and careered back across the track before coming to rest on the grass strip between the track and the inside wall.

Roger Williams, who started the race behind Esterer, missed the Canadian's car but was himself hit from behind by one of the other cars and ended up jammed against the inside wall with a broken left-front wheel and suspension componentry.

Russell Greer also ended up against the pit wall, but though his car spun 180 degrees the only damage was to a front upright.

The race was immediately stopped to allow track workers to remove the cars and the field to regroup for the longer McLaren Cup Formula Libre feature later in the day.

"It was a biggie, all right," said Smith. "I've never had one like that before.

"It was wet and the track was greasy and when I floored it at the start she just snapped sideways. There was nothing I could do. I could see the wall coming up and I knew I was going to go in hard."

Though he agreed it was extremely fortunate that neither he nor anyone else was injured Smith said that it was hard to see his new car so badly damaged so early in his time with it.