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Nissan Mobil 500 Wellington 1986

Wellington Street Circuit, New Zealand

Date: 26/1/1986
Track length: 3.228 m
Attendance: unknown
Entries accepted: unknown
Starters: 39
Finishers: 19 classified

Pole position: Rouse
Fastest lap: Linström in 1.17,99

Distance: 500 km
Average speed: unknown
Weather: Sunny, then heavy rain, then back to sunny
Ruleset: Group A
Car info: 1985 Cars

 

For its second year, the Nissan Mobil 500 attracted a very strong field. The newly homologated evolution Holden Commodore VKs of Brock/Moffat, Grice/Cameron, Hulme/Smith and Bowkett/Wilkinson were expected to take the race to the two TWR Rovers of Walkinshaw/Percy and Hahne/Dickson and the Volvo 240T of Francevic/Lindstrom.
Andy Rouse came down to NZ to share his BTCC winning Sierra XR4Ti with David Oxton, and while considered a strong prospect for the pole, not many people thought the car would last the distance.
The Mustang of Johnson/Crichton and the BMWs of Crowe/Longhurst, Morton/Richards, Crosby/McKinnon, O'Brien/McIntyre and Keogh/Robertson were expected to go the distance, but would be relying on legendary reliability or rain to score a result.
As it turned out, the weather played a big role in the race.
Rouse did take the pole - in a top 10 shoot out held in very wet conditions. Francevic was alongside, followed by Brock, Johnson, Crowe, Grice, Harvey, O'Brien, Hulme and Bowkett.
From the start, on a dry track, the Volvo took the lead and Brock quickly found a way past Rouse as well. The Volvo would lead for the first 1/3rd of the race, chased by Brock's Commodore. Behind, the Bowkett Commodore was an early casualty after clipping a wall and Grice suffered early problems dropping him well back.Rouse's Sierra retired on lap 5, parked on the opposite side of the track from the pit wall.
Meanwhile, Denis Hulme had moved the AC&B Commodore up ahead of Crowe into the top three. The Volvo retired about 1/3rd distance, leaving Brock in charge from Hulme and Crowe.
(brendonwood1 at ten-tenths.com forum)
Then the weather arrived and the Holden Dealer Team gambled on intermediates, leaving Moffat struggling and falling down the field.
The Hulme/Smith car took on full wets and took the lead of the race, with the Crowe/Longhurst BMW - also on wets - grabbing second and closing quickly on the AC&B Commodore.
The great run of the AC&B Commodore came to an end when the gear lever came off in Smith's hands at 2/3rd distance, leaving the Crowe/Longhurst BMW with a huge two lap lead over the Brock/Moffat Commodore. The rain had stopped by 2/3rd distance, and on a drying track Brock took on the task of hauling in the BMW, lapping some 2.5 seconds a lap quicker than the BMW. However, Longhurst seemingly had it all under control until a suspension failure pitched the BMW into the wall with 10 laps to go.
This promoted Brock into the lead, ahead of Dick Johnson, John Harvey in the second HDT Commodore and Per-Gunnar Andersson in the visiting Rockgas Volvo. However, no sooner had Harvey taken over third, then he exited the race with engine failure, promoting the Volvo into third.
This is the way they finished, with the amazing little factory backed UDC Toyota NZ Corollas of Jennings/Barrow and Adams/Woolf finishing 1st & 2nd in class and 4th and 5th outright.
The Nissan Bluebird Turbo of Halliday/Croft won the 1,601-2,500cc class ahead of the Barry/Heyer Fiat Ritmo 130TC.

Division 1, 2 and 3
Pos Pos in class # Team / Entrant
Car- Engine		 Drivers, Nationality Engine
vol. (cc)		 Engine
Type		 Group Distance,
time		 Qualifying position Qualifying time Fastest lap Reason out,
remarks
1 1 5 Mobil Holden Dealer Team
Holden VK Commodore		 Peter Brock, AUS
Allan Moffat, CDN
 4980 V8 Div. 3 204 laps, 4:59.57,86 3 1.27,84 (1.18,42)    
2 2 17 JPS Dick Johnson racing
Ford Mustang		 Dick Johnson, AUS
Neville Crichton, NZ
 4968 V8 Div. 3 203 4 1.28,57 (1.20,47)   Pit stop: loose brake caliper
3 3 4 Rock Gas
Volvo 240 Turbo		 Per-Gunnar "Peggen" Andersson, S
Dave McMillan, NZ
 2141 tc L4 Div. 3 195 13 1.23,85   Pit stops: flat batteries
4 1 42 UDC
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Mark Jennings, NZ
Dave Barrow, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1 190 23 1.29,65    
5 2 41 UDC
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Paul Adams, NZ
Allan Woolf, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1 189 24 1.30,15    
6 4 6 Trans Tasman Insurance
BMW 635 CSi		 Graeme Crosby, NZ
Lou MacKinnon, NZ
 3475 L6 Div. 3 187 11 1.23,50   Valve rocker
7 3 91  
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Bryan Bate, NZ
Dennis Roderick, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1 184 30 1.32,44    
8 4 43  
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Allan Drinkrow, NZ
Bruce Drinkrow, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1 183 26 1.31,58    
9 5 16 Roadways
Holden VK Commodore		 Allan Grice, AUS
Graeme Cameron, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3 182 6 1.28,83 (1.20,66)   Gearbox
10 6 26  
Holden VK Commodore		 Chris Castle, NZ
John Billington, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3 180 27 1.31,69    
11 5 35 Lakeland Ford
Ford Escort RS 1600i		 Phil Myhre, NZ
Graham Lorimer, NZ
 1598 L4 Div. 1 178 29 1.32,19    
12 6 51  
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Barry Dryden, NZ
Robin Laing, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1 178 37 1.36,73    
13 7 28  
Ford Capri III 2.8i		 Bill McFarlane, NZ
Wayne Murdoch, NZ
 2790 V6 Div. 3 176 34 1.34,69    
14 1 23  
Nissan Bluebird Turbo		 Don Halliday, NZ
Gary Croft, NZ
 1770 tc L4 Div. 2 175 33 1.32,86    
15 2 33  
Fiat Ritmo 130TC		 Bob Barry, NZ
Chris Heyer, AUS
 1995 L4 Div. 2 175 36 1.36,49    
16 7 89  
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Graham McGregor, NZ
Bob Holden, AUS
 1587 L4 Div. 1 174 20 1.29,07    
17 8 8  
Holden VK Commodore		 Winston Wrigley, NZ
Robbie Ker, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3 168 31 1.32,50    
18 8 45  
Toyota Starlet EP71		 Warren Burt, NZ
Jeff Pascoe, NZ
 1296 L4 Div. 1 151 32 1.32,63    
19 9 46  
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Steve Willy, NZ
David Janes, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1 135 19 1,28,41    
NC   67 ANZ
Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV/6		 Ed Lamont, NZ
Ray Gulson, AUS
 2491 V6 Div. 2 95 28 1.31,98    
DNF   3  
BMW 635 CSi		 John Morton, NZ
Jim Richards, NZ
 3475 L6 Div. 3   18 1.28,11   Clutch
DNF   84  
Ford Escort RS 1600i		 Chris Toms, NZ
Rex Rattenbury, NZ
 1598 L4 Div. 1   25 1.30,55    
DNF   48  
Ford Escort RS 1600i		 Jim Clark, NZ
Paul Mabee, NZ
 1598 L4 Div. 1   39 no time    
DNF   64  
Ford Escort RS 1600i		 Andrew Bagnall, NZ
Paul Radisich, NZ
 1598 L4 Div. 1   22 1.29,31    
DNF   11  
Jaguar XJ-S		 Allan Prince, NZ
Mike Hourigan, NZ
 5344 V12 Div. 3   38 1.39,18    
DNF   44  
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Tony Rutherford, NZ
Brian Friend, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1   35 1.35,18    
DNF   38/39?  
Holden VK Commodore		 Rod Collingwood, NZ
Ian "Inky" Tulloch, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3   21 1.29,24    
DNF   99 Roadways
Holden VK Commodore		 Graeme Bowkett, NZ
Wayne Wilkinson, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3 1 10 1.36,38 (1.21,33)   Accident
DNF   18 Andy Rouse Engineering
Ford Sierra XR4 TI		 Andy Rouse, GB
David Oxton, NZ
 2320 tc L4 Div. 3 5 1 1.26,93 (1.21,50)   Accident
DNF   1 Mark Petch
Volvo 240 Turbo		 Thomas Lindström, S
Robbie Francevic, NZ
 2141 tc L4 Div. 3   2 1.27,61 (1.19,91) 1.17,99 Oil line
DNF   9 Whittakers Peanut Slab TWR
Rover Vitesse		 Tom Walkinshaw, GB
Win Percy, GB
 3532 V8 Div. 3   12 1.23,74   Accident
DNF   10 Whittakers Peanut Slab TWR
Rover Vitesse		 Armin Hahne, D
Ron Dickson, AUS
 3532 V8 Div. 3   14 1.24,15   Leaking fuel cap, transmission
DNF   72 State Coal BMW
BMW 635 CSi		 Charlie O'Brien, AUS
Glenn McIntyre, NZ
 3475 L6 Div. 3   8 1.29,64 (1.21,32)   Accident
DNF   7 Mobil Holden Dealer Team
Holden VK Commodore		 John Harvey, AUS
Neal Lowe, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3   7 1.29,90 (1.21,96)   Lost oil filter
DNF   20  
BMW 635 CSi		 Jim Keogh, AUS
Struan Robertson, NZ
 3475 L6 Div. 3   16 1.27,30    
DNF   31 Trevor Crowe Racing/Archibald
BMW 635 CSi		 Trevor Crowe, NZ
Tony Longhurst, AUS
 3475 L6 Div. 3 197? 5 1.28,78 (1.22,43)   Suspension
DNF   2 AC&B
Holden VK Commodore		 Denny Hulme, NZ
Ray Smith, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3   9 1.30,11 (1.22,98)   Differential
DNF   24 Jagparts Racing
Holden VK Commodore		 Gerald Kay, AUS
Bryan Thomson, AUS
 4980 V8 Div. 3   15 1.24,43   Differential
DNS   32 Anderson
Ford Mustang 5.0 GT		 Bruce Anderson, NZ
Leo Leonard, NZ
 4968 V8 Div. 3   17 1.27,86   Accident

Remarks: Top-10 qualifiers were qualified for the flying lap competition, which determined the top-10 grid positions