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< BACK | Round Four: Manfeild (16-17 February, 2008)
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Hi everyone,
With round 4 been and gone heres how it all went.
I had never driven on the Manfeild circuit so I was very excited to get on the track and do some laps.
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Friday:
My first time on the track surprised both myself and the team as I set the fastest time in this session. The Track was great but with alot of straights I was concerned about having 50Kg of lead in the car (reward ballast).
Saturday:
Qualifying: The track was still a bit damp for the first half and I knew it was drying quickly. I finished 3 laps and then pulled into the pit lane to wait for the track to dry a bit more. After returning onto the circuit with only 8 minutes remaining I knew I had to do at least 1 great lap. At this stage I was sitting in P8 on the lap chart. On my first flying lap I posted a time of 1.26.007 which was good enough for pole, then on my last lap I bettered my time with a 1.25.940sec which put me on pole by 0.503 sec. The team and I were stoked.
Race 1: From grid 16 (Pole in the Suzuki's) I had a great start and lead till the finish. But it was not easy. I had Mark Whyte, Dane Fisher and Paul Hinton all right on my bumper and pressuring me the whole race. Every Straight I had one of them right up on the outside of me but I managed to hold on till the end.
Sunday:
Race 2: Starting on grid 15 (pole) with Paul Hinton beside me on 16. Paul got me off the line and lead for the first 2 laps, I knew I had to pass him early or he would pull away as he was 50kg lighter than my car. On lap 3 I dived up the inside of Hinton into turn 1 and led till the last lap. Hinton managed to get up the inside of me down the back straight and from there we went side by side to the finish line with Hinton beating me by only 0.016sec.
Race 3: All I had to do to win the round from here was to beat Paul Hinton, But starting P11 when he started P10 I was already on the back-foot. I had a bad start to the race and that also pretty much described the whole race. With the 50kg in the car it proved very difficult for me as I got dominated whenever I got onto a straight. I finished the race in 6th place.
Paul Hinton took the round win and I finished in 2nd. Unfortunately I will get another 15kg of lead added to me for round 5 at Timaru in 2 weeks time.
Points wise the weekend was great as I now lead the championship with 789, Mark Whyte is 2nd with 712 and Brock Barrie is now 3rd with 699 points.
I am looking forward to Timaru as I believe I have a good shot at extending my lead as the championship is coming close to the end.
Once again Thank you to Hollands Suzuki Cars, Mag and Turbo Warehouse, Winger, Suzuki NZ, Ge money and everyone else for all there help and support.
Regards
Cody McMaster |
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