Motorsport: Smith adds record to long list of titles

Veteran driver Ken Smith in action at Manfeild.

Super-veteran Ken Smith (Lola T332) and fellow MSC NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival series fast man Steve Ross (McRae GM1) had reason to celebrate after the final round of the 2014/15 series at the New Zealand Grand Prix meeting at Feilding's Manfeild circuit at the weekend.

For three-time former series title holder Smith, 73, from Auckland, it was a new category lap record and his third round clean-sweep of the season.

For southern man Ross, a relative youngster compared with Smith at 58, it was winning the MSC F5000 series for a third time.

"Not a bad result, was it?" Smith said after winning the feature MSC race, held just before the 60th annual NZGP, a race won by Canadian Lance Stroll, a mere 57 years his junior.

A three-time winner of the New Zealand Grand Prix himself, Smith arrived at the meeting keen to further lower the F5000 category lap record - 1.01.770 - he set two years ago.

He and Ross both lapped under it in qualifying on Saturday morning but only Smith was able to beat it in a race, Smith winning the second eight-lap prelim on Sunday morning with a best lap time of 1.01.629.

With Smith contesting only three of the six rounds of this season's transtasman series, he was never in the running for a fourth series title, however.

Ross did do every round and a record-equalling third MSC title was his for the taking before his McRae GM1 even turned a wheel this weekend.

Ross added the 2014/15 title to those he won in 2011/12 and 2012/13 with a final score of 764 points, 271 more than Russell Greer from Blenheim in his ex-Graeme Lawrence Lola T332 (493) and 335 more than third placed Greg Thornton in his freshly rebuilt ex-Sam Posey Surtees TS11.

Greer, who stepped up to contest the MSC series after an early career rallying and later interest in historic racing, was "over the moon" with second in the series points standings, paying tribute to Christchurch preparation specialist John Crawford and his team from Motorsport Solutions who have run the car for Greer this season.