The Star: February 02, 2017

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Thursday February 2 2017 31
Sport
Shot putter Tom Walsh will get another chance to try and
topple Olympic champion Ryan Crouser, this time on home
soil. Find out more at www.star.kiwi
Crowe reunites with old car
• By Gordon Findlater
TREVOR CROWE has been
reunited with the same BMW
635 he drove to success in New
Zealand more than 30 years ago.
That’s an awfully long time
ago.
However, when you ask
Crowe about his age, all he will
give away is that he’s not as old
as New Zealand single-seater
racing legend Ken Smith who
is 74.
Crowe and his former BMW,
now owned by V8 and touring
car legend Jim Richards, will
compete in the Archibalds
historic touring cars event at the
weekend’s Skope Classic at Mike
Pero Motorsport Park.
Crowe drove the exact same
car with two-time Bathurst
champion Tony Longhurst in
the mid 1980s. The pair won the
North Island endurance series
and were leading the Wellington
500 street race before the vehicle
broke a strut.
The local racing stalwart
then drove another BMW 635
Green, Breach top chance in Super Cup first round
• By Gordon Findlater
THE COUNTRY’S top sidecar
drivers will be at Moore Park
tomorrow for the first round of
the Sidecar Super Cup.
The meeting will see 16 teams
racing in 20 heats, cumulating
with the winners going directly
to the final.
Christchurch’s best hope for
victory in the super cup event
will be current South Island
champions Lionel Green and
Shane Breach.
There will also be a B final to
give the next tier of competitors
a chance to gain the last final
spot.
The second round of the super
cup will then be held at Invercargill’s
Oreti Park on Sunday.
With South Islanders James
NOSTALGIA: Trevor Crowe will race in the same BMW 635 on
the weekend that he last drove more than 30 years ago.
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
to victory in the New Zealand
Touring Car Championship in
1986 before continuing his time
with the manufacturer in an
M3, which he won the 1988 Asia
Pacific Touring Car title in and
came fourth at Bathurst in the
same year.
Crowe had the option to drive
RIDERS: Christchurch’s Lionel Green and Shane Breach will
be among the favourites tomorrow night. They will race in
both the best pairs and Sidecar Super Cup.
Douglass, Harley Biddle,
Aiden Thwaites and Shane
an M3 this weekend, but the
prospect of being reunited with
his former car was something he
couldn’t turn down.
“It’s all a bit last minute.
Although it was organised a
while ago, the car didn’t arrive
from Australia until last week,”
said Crowe.
Twiss named to represent New
Zealand in Australia, race
He has been hard at work in
his workshop this week, getting
the car ready in time for racing.
A regular sight over the years,
both on tarmac and gravel,
Crowe is known for building
his own projects, including
a V8 Starlet, V8 Skoda, an
overpowered Justy and his take
on a Subaru ute.
Driving something he didn’t
build will be something Crowe
hasn’t experienced in a long
time.
“I’m a constructor who
drives a few cars. When it’s
somebody else’s car and there’s
a lot of money involved there’s
quite a lot of added pressure.
If you build your own car and
it doesn’t do very well, that’s
alright, you go back and change
it,” said Crowe.
The 26th edition of the Skope
Classic runs on both Saturday
and Sunday at Ruapuna.
Racing will also include
formula 5000, historic formula
one, formula junior, formula
libre and muscle cars.
organisers at Moore and Oreti
parks are trying to capitalise on
the interest to raise the status of
sidecar racing.
These events lift the standards,
said Moore Park president
Mike Provost, who is keen to
see our local riders improve
and experience some overseas
competition.
Tomorrow’s racing will begin
with the best pairs’ semi-finals
and subsequent final after the
event was cancelled due to poor
weather in Christchurch last
month.
Green and Breach will also be
teamed with Derek and Matthew
Ramsay from Palmerston
North in the best pairs.
The best pairs begin at 5pm
and will be followed by the Sidecar
Super Cup.
In Brief
TRIATHLETE’S THIRD WIN
Ari Graham has continued to
dominate the junior triathlon
circuit with her third win of the
national series at Takapuna Beach,
Auckland, at the weekend. The
Southshore athlete was crowned
winner at both the House of
Travel and Future ChampioNZ
festivals in Christchurch and
Taupo respectively in December.
The final two races of the series
will take place in Wanaka this
month and Wellington in March.
Graham has her eyes set on the
remainder of the series and, with
a gap year ahead of her to work
part-time and focus on training,
the youngster will be one to watch
out for this year.
GOLF TEEN WINS IN OTAGO
Canterbury juniors led the
way in the Otago men’s golf
championship at the weekend.
Hiroki Miya, of Russley, won
the event and Tom Parker, of
Christchurch, finished second.
Miya, 16, was impressive from tee
to green at the Otago Golf Club,
finishing on a par 284 for the
four rounds to win the title and
beat Parker, 17, by seven shots.
Canterbury’s success continued in
the women’s three-round event,
with Juliana Hung, of Russley,
finishing 10 shots ahead of
Otago’s Annabel Evans.
LESLIE’S BIG LUGE SEASON
Jack Leslie has finished third
overall in an international luging
series. Leslie, 19, who lives in
Christchurch and is coached in
Naseby, won the 2016/17 Natural
Track Junior World Cup series.
His third placing in the final race
last week in Unterammergau,
Germany, was not enough to
clinch the title. In the season’s
four races, Leslie finished first,
second and third twice. Fifty
athletes from 17 countries
competed in the series. Leslie
has now returned to the senior
circuit for the final two races of
the season. He is currently racing
at the senior world championships
in Romania this week.
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