Heats
1989 Wellington 
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Pukekohe 500

Pukekohe Raceway, Auckland, New Zealand

Date: 10/12/1989
Track length: 2.817 m
Attendance: unknown
Entries accepted: unknown
Starters: 28?
Finishers: 16 classified

Pole position: Brock/Radisich in 1.01,86
Fastest lap: unknown

Distance: 500 km (2 heats)
Average speed: unknown
Weather: unknown
Ruleset: Group A
Car info:  

 

Dick Johnson and John Bowe, current kings of the Down-Under touring car scene,crowned their best-ever year by winning the Nissan Mobil 500 second round at Pukekohe against a strong international field.
The Johnson team did it all exactly right — including two lightning-fast pit stops — to win both 250 km heats of the follow-up to the Wellington street race, bringing all of the previous week’s main contenders together for a rematch. Johnson inherited the lead in the first heat from Brock when the 05 Mobil 1 car, made its pit stop with just under two-thirds of the 89-lap distance gone. The Queenslander stayed out for another 10 minutes, dived into the pits for a fast tire change and top-up, and made it back on to the track with a few seconds’ lead on Radisich. The New Zealander was unable to make any impression in the rundown to the chequered flag and so Bowe went into the second heat, 45 minutes later, with the benefit of a pole position and a 7.28 second buffer on Radisich and 37 seconds on the third-placed Tony Longhurst/Neville Crichton Sierra.
Not so surprisingly at this power circuit, the Schnitzer BMW M3s driven by Wellington winners Roberto Ravaglia and Emanuele Pirro, and runners-up Steve Soper and Fabien Giroix were not serious contenders. Longhurst was the mover early in the second race, opening-up a slender lead on Radisich in the first 20 minutes, with Bowe settling-down just off their pace in third. Within half an hour Longhurst’s efforts had earned only a 6 seconds break on Radisich and by then he’d run out of driving time. Forced to pit and hand over to Crichton, he passed the lead to Radisich. A few minutes later, though, confused communications brought the new leader into the pits, ready to hand over to the boss... only to find Brock sitting chatting on the pit wall! The stop was 10 laps earlier than planned. In the panic, valuable seconds — and maybe the race — were lost while Brock geared-up and climbed aboard the refuelled and re-tired Ford. The stops put Bowe into a large enough lead that he was able, much later, to dive in and out of the pits and resume still in front, with a 7 seconds break on Brock. Peter Perfect ran home second, with the Richards/ Skaife Nissan third (despite failing turbo boost that struck both cars), Longhurst and Crichton fourth (two laps down), Francevic running steadily for fifth and the Fury/Percy Nissan sixth. When the times were totalled, the Johnson/Bowe clean-sweep had, of course, made them clear-cut winners, with a 15 seconds advantage over Brock and Radisich and 44 seconds on thirdplaced Longhurst and Crichton.
(Autosport)

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 17 Shell Ultra Hi Tech Racing Team
Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth		 Dick Johnson, AUS
John Bowe, AUS
 1993 tc L4 Div. 3 178 laps, 3:12.33,79 4 1.01,86    
2 2 05 Mobil 1 Racing
Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth		 Peter Brock, AUS
Paul Radisich, NZ
 1993 tc L4 Div. 3 178 laps, 3:12.48,37 1 1.01,27    
3 3 25 Benson & Hedges Racing
Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth		 Tony Longhurst, AUS
Neville Crichton, NZ
 1993 tc L4 Div. 3 176 2 1.01,55    
4 4 2 Nissan Motorsport
Nissan Skyline GTS-R Turbo HR31		 Jim Richards, NZ
Mark Skaife, AUS
 2029 tc L6 Div. 3 176 7 1.03,00    
5 5 105 Mobil 1 Racing
Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth		 Andrew Miedecke, AUS
Tony Noske, AUS
 1993 tc L4 Div. 3 175 3 1.01,82    
6 6 3 Nissan Motorsport
Nissan Skyline GTS-R Turbo HR31		 George Fury, AUS
Win Percy, GB
 2029 tc L6 Div. 3 174 8 1.03,13    
7 7 11 Mark Petch/Whittakers Peanut Slab
Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth		 Gianfranco Brancatelli, I
Robbie Francevic, NZ
 1993 tc L4 Div. 3 172 10 1.04,21    
8 1 10 BMW M Team Schnitzer
BMW M3 Evo		 Steve Soper, GB
Fabien Giroix, F
 2332 L4 Div. 2 170 6 1.02,78    
9 2 4 Andersson/Rex Rotary
BMW M3 Evo		 Per-Gunnar "Peggen" Andersson, S
Nettan Lindgren, S
Gary Croft, NZ
 2332 L4 Div. 2 168 12 1.06,68    
10 3 56 Total Motorsport Engineering
BMW M3 Evo		 Kayne Scott, NZ
John Sorenson, NZ
 2332 L4 Div. 2 166 13 1.05,57    
11 8 34 Ray Gulson
BMW 635 CSi		 Ray Gulson, AUS
Nico Sieling, NZ
 3475 L6 Div. 3 157 22 1.10,73    
12 1 13 McAndrew Motorsport
Toyota Corolla GT AE86		 Joe McAndrew, NZ
Bob Holden, AUS
 1587 L4 Div. 1 153 24 1.12,55    
13 2 51 McAndrew Motorsport
Toyota Corolla GT		 Digby Paape, NZ
Jon Paape, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1 153 27 1.15,18    
14 9 23 Beaurepaires Motorsport
Holden VL SS Commodore		 Chris Lambden, AUS
Gerald Kay, AUS
 4980 V8 Div. 3 151 14 1.06,50    
15 3 39 David Sala
Toyota Corolla FX-GT AE82		 David Sala, AUS
Steve Swaine, AUS
Richard Vorst, AUS
 1587 L4 Div. 1 148 28 1.16,30    
16 9 28  
Holden VK Commodore		 Paul Torckler, NZ
John Schoen, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3 135 19 1.09,36    
DNF   7  
Holden VL SS Commodore		 Tony Mulvihill, AUS
Glenn McIntyre, NZ
Dennis Roderick, NZ
 4980 V8 Div. 3   16 1.07,35    
DNF   12 MW Motorsport
Holden VL SS Commodore		 Warren McKellar, NZ
Drew Price, AUS
 4980 V8 Div. 3   17 1.08,33    
DNF   33 Autoshift Transmissions
Ford Mustang		 Tony Rutherford, NZ
David Lowe, NZ
 5000 V8 Div. 3   20 1.09,89    
DNF   50 Bill Bryce Racing
BMW M3 Evo		 Brett Riley, NZ
Denny Hulme, NZ
 2332 L4 Div. 2   11 1.06,02    
DNF   58  
Toyota Celica		 Geoffrey McLeod, NZ
Noel Miller, NZ
 1998 L4 Div. 2   26 1.13,91    
DNF   53 Racing Project Bandoh
Toyota Corolla GT		 Keiichi Tsuchiya, J
Hiroyuki Kawai, J
Tatsuhiko Seki, J
 1587 L4 Div. 1   18 1.09,12    
DNF   55 Tony Oliver Construction
Toyota Corolla GT		 Dave Barrow, NZ
Tony Oliver, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1   25 1.13,42    
DNF   73  
Toyota Corolla GT		 Steve Willy, NZ
Grant Liston, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1   23 1.12,64    
DNF   1 BMW M Team Schnitzer
BMW M3 Evo		 Roberto Ravaglia, I
Emanuele Pirro, I
 2332 L4 Div. 2   9 1.04,14   Split sump
DNF   8 Budget Travel
Ford Sierra RS 500 Cosworth		 Andrew Bagnall, NZ
Graeme Crosby, NZ
 1993 tc L4 Div. 3   5 1.02,18    
DNF   57 John Sax Racing
BMW M3		 John Sax, NZ
Graeme Cameron, NZ
 2332 L4 Div. 2   15 1.06,76    
DNF   52 Racing Project Bandoh
Toyota Corolla GT		 Bryan Bate, NZ
Andrew Maher, NZ
 1587 L4 Div. 1   21 1.10,01    
DNS   29 Sommariva Concrete
BMW 635 CSi		 Joe Sommariva, AUS
Darrel Belsky, AUS
 3475 L6 Div. 3         Withdrawn