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The 944

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Goodbye Summer

In stark contrast to the glorious weather from round 1, Sandown greeted the 944 Challenge with grey skies and rain.

Qualifying: Twenty-three 944's appeared and Rob Lange posted the fastest time of 1:28.52. Next were Dick Howe and Brent Rose followed by Jed Comand and Mike Cullinan with best ever qualifying results. Paul Stephenson qualified 6th in his second outing in the 944 warning that he will be right up there when he gets the feel of the car. Greg Doyle and Martin Bailey both made the trip from Sydney to have a guest run, and despite jetlag qualified 9th and 15th respectively.

It wasn't all smiles throughout the field as Peter Doherty and Gary McDermott finished the session with a lot les oil than they started with. John Goddard and Dennis O'Keefe both pulled in early without posting a time. Barry Rowe likewise failed to take part in the session while he had some emergency welding on a cracked seat mount. Sabotage was probably the only way to stop Barry from out-qualifying Honest John again anyway. (Sorry John, couldn't resist). Amber Anderson managed to get her car re-built just 10 days after squashing it against a wall at Winton. Thanks to late nights and Dave Brennan at aPorschaPart she was back on track and posted a respectable 16th fastest.

Race 1: O'Keefe was out to make up lost ground as he blasted through the stones down the inside, shooting from 21st to 9th on the first lap. Howe missed the start and fell back to 6th while Bruce Rose had a "drive through" and went right to the back. Goddard's mechanical problem wasn't resolved and he pulled out after one lap. Meanwhile, the leaders got away well and settled down with Lange leading, Rose on his tail taking ground steadily away from Comand, Stephenson and Howe. In the midfield, Cullinan, Doyle, Adrian Zadro, Mike Phillipson and Jossy Stoffels were making a train while O'Keefe snuck up to join them, passing John Smallman on the way.

Rose made a move on Lange to take the lead on lap 4 while Howe picked off Stephenson then Comand to recover the ground lost in his poor start. At the back, Bruce Rose was taking 3 seconds per lap off Rowe, and managed to regain that spot by the finish. Anderson's repaired car soon became second hand again when a "touch" at turn 1 saw the front fibreglass depart from her car onto to the grass. The majority of the car and driver continued on.

With only 2 laps remaining, the battle at the front got serious, and Lange re-passed Rose for the lead. Both drivers' laps stayed in the 1:28's as the tussle continued into the last lap where Rose snatched the lead again and crossed the line 0.18 seconds ahead of Lange. Howe was 300 metres behind the leaders followed by Comand and Stephenson. Cullinan and Doyle had slipped away from the pack to finish 6th and 7th. The "pack" of Zadro, Stoffels, O'Keefe, Phillipson and Smallman crossed almost together to round out the top twelve. Chris Lewis-Williams crossed the line next, also recovering from a big crash at Winton last round, followed by Barry Bedgood who put in a great drive picking his way through from 19th to finish 14th. Steve Phillips and Martin Bailey were next, surrounded by Commodore and Falcon Saloon cars who started from the rear of the 944 field. Michael Westaway (Tony's brother) finished his first ever 944 race in 17th ahead of Anderson, Bruce Rose and Rowe.

Race 2: Wet. Survival was the order for most, but Rose and Lange jumped away from the start handling the conditions better than the rest. They skipped away from the field at over 4 seconds per lap making it a question of “how far”.

Comand had a couple of spins in the wet propelling him from 4^th back to 15^th in the first two laps. Stoffels, Bedgood then Anderson all fell off losing lots of places but Westaway's excursion saw him unable to finish.

Up front, Lange took over the lead on lap 2 and looked the goods but had a slip allowing Rose to regain the lead. Without immediate pressure, Rose steadily increased his lead. Lewis-Williams made great progress through the field moving from 13^th up to 9^th, but gave it all back again to finish 12^th.

After starting at the back, Goddard made huge gains going from 21^st to 12^th on the first lap then got the benefit of a couple of “spinners” to end up in 9^th, well placed for a real tilt at the final race. McDermott, whose weekend looked over on Saturday afternoon, had the Jocaro boys do some overtime and he re-appeared to take 18^th.

Over the remaining laps, Rose stretched his lead to cross the line 4.7 seconds ahead of Lange. Howe withstood constant pressure from Stephenson for 3^rd followed by Doyle, Cullinan, Zadro, O’Keefe, Goddard and Phillipson who filled the top ten. Bailey drove consistently avoiding trouble and improved his position up to 11^th.

Race 3: Still wet. Rose and Lange again got away well, but not so for Howe who stalled on the line and finally got going to continue in 17^th. Comand lost it at Dandenong Road and was out of the race while Cullinan limped back to the pits with a mechanical problem and didn’t return.

O’Keefe continued his charge from the rear and got right up to 3^rd with Zadro also staying out of trouble holding down 4^th with Stephenson 5^th. Zadro went down the inside of O’Keefe at turn 1 and a battle for 3^rd was on with Stephenson joining in at the rear. Doyle was sitting pretty in 5^th when an excursion cross country between turns 1 and 2 cost him 15 places.

Stephenson got the power down better out of turn 4 to shuffle O’Keefe back a spot while Phillipson was joined by the  Goddard who found progress tougher at the pointy end. Smallman’s run of outs continued, his car expiring 2 laps short of the finish with a lack of spark. Meanwhile at Dandenong Road, Bedgood parked his car in the gravel not to return and Westaway pulled into the pits with only 4 laps completed.

Back at the front, Brent Rose scored his third win from three races with a comfortable break over Lange. The tight packed group of Zadro, Stephenson, O’Keefe and Phillipson crossed the line almost together followed by Goddard, Lewis-Williams, Bailey and Howe in 10^th. Stoffels finished 11^th followed by Bruce Rose who, after missing race 2 stormed through the field making up a place every lap.

Rowe, Doyle, Phillips, McDermott and Anderson wrapped up the remaining places to end a day of racing which will be best remembered for the early trip home.

Points for Round 2: