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< BACK | Round Five: Timaru (1-2 March, 2008)
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Round 5 at Timaru Levels Raceway
Going into this round we knew it was going to be even tougher as we now had a huge 65kg of lead bolted onto the passenger floor of the 92kw machine.
What a great weekend it was though with us winning 2 out of 3 races and finishing 4th in the reverse grid race from P10.
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The weather was unpredictable over the entire weekend with us qualifying and racing in both wet and dry conditions.
Here's the run down on the events of the weekend:
Qualifying:
The track was damp but I had a dry line towards the end of the session.
Finished up 2nd fastest 0.433 sec off Brock Barrie. I decided to run our car very low on fuel just to try and help us out weight wise but it wasn't really the best idea as the car started to surge in the closing stages of qualifying as the track was drying out. I did make it back to the pits though. Still I was very happy with P2.
Race 1:
This time the conditions had changed and the rain was coming down fast. The track was very wet and the decision was whether to run the grooved slick or the wet tyre. We chose to gamble and go for the grooved slick which proved to be the best decision. From grid 17 (p2) I had a great start and managed to get ahead of Brock (grid 16 (p1) and lead till the end. Brock applied a lot of pressure throughout race but could not find a way past. Last lap he biffed it of at the hairpin which put him back to 5th for the race. This was great for me points wise.
Race 2:
The track was dry and conditions were good.
PRS (Production Racing Series) have a format for race 2 which is top 10 reverse (Never has a Suzuki finished top 10). In race 1 I finished 1st and Dane Fisher 2nd which put us on front row of the grid with Dane on Pole and me on 2.
I once again had an absolutely great start and got in front of Dane before turn 1. From there I held on to win race 2 making it 2 out of 2 for the weekend, despite carrying 65kg we still showed impressive pace.
Race 3:
Reverse Grid race .The track was slightly greasy but dried out within 3 laps.
I started from p10 and only had to finish 2 behind Dane Fisher to win the round.
The first 2 laps were very interesting with 3 of the Suzuki's spinning of the track in front of me, 1 of those being Dane. I was having a really great run and coming through the traffic very good and clean. Unfortunately there was one car that I got held behind for 3 laps which cost me big time as the leading cars got a huge gap on me. I finally got past him and chased the leading cars. I tried as hard as I could but I ran out of laps and caught new driver Mark Spring who had an excellent race on the last lap. I finished 4th.
So with 2 wins and a 4th I was the round winner so I can't ask for much more.
My championship lead is also looking very good now.
Thank you to the whole team, all my supporters for the weekend and a big thanks to Holland's Suzuki Cars, Mag and Turbo Warehouse, Winger, Suzuki NZ and GE money.
Down to Invercargill this weekend for the 6th round, can't wait.
See you all there!
Cody McMaster |
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