Sun Sprout Motorsport Endures at Pukekohe

The Sun Sprout Mazda 1989 Series 5 RX7 race car is driven by long-time motorsport enthusiast: Sun Sprout Managing Director, Stephen Dench.

This year’s race was run in sunny yet very cold conditions, which was ideal for the drivers but not so great for the pit crew and spectators.

The Sun Sprout race car qualified well, clocking a best time of 1.10 with road tyres and 120 litres of fuel on board. This qualified them 22nd on the grid out of a field of 45 cars, with some very exotic (and expensive!) cars in front.

Sun Sprout Managing Director, Stephen Dench took the wheel for the first two hours and the car ran very strong for the first hour and a half, moving up to be in 14th place.  At about the 1 hour 30 mark the car started to get a vibration and was taken to the pits for checking. Unfortunately one of the universal joints in the driveshaft had given up so the car had to be jacked up and the driveshaft removed. The failed universal had also caused the other two universals to fail so valuable time was lost while the problem was fixed. After a great bit of teamwork the Sun Sprout motorsport team managed to get the car back out for the last few hours of the race and Tony enjoyed the last hour or so of driving in the dark.
 
While disappointed with the result due to the failure, the team was happy with the way the car ran and the consistent times they achieved. 

Many thanks to Luke (Independent Porsche Specialists), Bevan and Tom (Taupo Milking Machines), Monique (Jones's Garage Hamilton) for their great crew work and Brent Greenlees for his wonderful Team Manager skills.
 
Special thanks also for our sponsors Sun Sprout, Farmer Bills, Dashboard Diner, Syntech Lubricants, and Apex Auto Centre in Hamilton.

The Sun Sprout race car will be back on the track again at the Super GT Series, which starts in September.

Find out more about Sun Sprout Motorsport.