One week prior to the final round we were testing at Manfeild after the car had almost been completely apart. This was my first time back in the seat in 4 months, and 6 days. The test day went well, and we were feeling ready to dive into the first round of the series at the National layout of Hampton Downs.
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We headed up to Hampton Downs on the Friday, ready to get right into the championship on Saturday. Unfortunately we didn’t have a test session at all this weekend, and had to get right into qualifying without being able to iron out any creases in the setup. We jumped into qualifying, and had a minor issue with the engine that stayed for most of the day, before we knew what the cause was and fixed it. The setup felt right, and we made minimal changes over the day, but the time was only good enough for 6th on the grid.
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We went into Race 1 on the outside of the grid in P6, I was a little frustrated with my qualifying position, but didn’t let it get to me, as I got the car straight into P4 off the line. I stayed there until a car ahead ran into some mechanical problems, putting me up to P3. I defended my position like my life depended on it and came across the line 3rd, for the first race of the season.
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Slight setup changes had been made for Race 2, but our issue was still there, and we hadn’t found the cause yet. This race was a lonely one, as I was starting on the 3rd row again, and had another great start putting me up to 4th off the line, however we were lacking the pace to get up to the front bunch and fight it out, resulting in a P4 finish.
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We got to the root of issue by this race. In a discussion with Kenny Smith he came up with some ideas as to how we could fix it. We got on top of the issue as well as we could while we were still at the track and went out to send it for the last race of the day. There were no grid position changes all day for anyone, and I was P6 again. I came off the line and made up 2 places instantly (a trend I’d like to continue) and pushed forward into P3 early in the race, before a car ahead ran into an engine issue, being forced to retire and putting us in P2, where I would finish the race.
We ended up 3rd for the day, just 4 points shy of P2, it was a bit tough chasing our tail with the engine but we’ll have it all the way right for the next meeting, and I’m 100% ready to get on top of it next round in Taupo on the 26th!
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Overall Points after Round 1/6
Pos, Name, Total
1/ Dylan Grant, 225
2/ Zach Blincoe, 185
3/ Blake Dowdall, 181
4/ Reagan Edwards, 151
5/ Shane Drake, 148
6/ Toby McCormack, 141
7/ Mason Potter, 102
