Birthday boy Reece Hendl-Cox has claimed his first Hi-Q Components NZ Formula First Championship race win in a carnage-filled race at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park. Series leader Kaleb Ngatoa finished second while Chris Symon stepped onto the podium for the first time this season.
The carnage began at the first turn as Blake Evans and Taylor Hurst made contact, resulting in Hurst spinning. Once Hurst started rolling forward again Billy Frazer and Nathan Sudiono collected him and prompted the race to be suspended under red flags.
The race then went to a full restart and it was a similar story as Bob Dillow spun out of turn one and then collected by Sudiono. Dillow suffered a bent rear axle while Sudiono sustained terminal rear suspension damage, ruling them both out of the remainder of the race.
While all that was going on SpeedSport Scholarship driver Conrad Clark slowed to a halt at turn two with what turned out to be a fuel pump failure and leaving the lead rookie driver stranded on the side of the track.
Out in front Reece Hendl-Cox had pulled a gap over the pack of Kaleb Ngatoa, Liam Foster, Chris Symon Callum Crawley and Evans.
Halfway into the race, Paul Butler spun at turn seven and again at the chase later in the lap, dropping him back to battle with Alex Hawley who lost ground after taking to the grass to avoid Dillow on the opening lap.
Foster, running in second at the time, spun off the road at turn one on lap five after hitting a puddle. He would not be the only one to be caught out as a lap later Crawley ran his ARB 4×4 Accessories machine right off the track.
On the way to ninth position Frazer engaged in an almighty battle with Dave Scammell, the pair ran two wide through turns two and three, just touching wheels and getting the crowd excited as a result.
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