The Taupo finale will always be remembered for the dramatic showdown in this year’s championship between Mitch Evans and Earl Bamber. Thankfully none of my own dramas were to have any effect on the series outcome. Both of these guy’s were thoroughly deserving of a championship win and either way the winner would have had my congratulations. As it was Mitch got the job done and I wish him well for the future as he has some big plans.

For me Taupo was another challenging round for my team and I. In early testing we thought we had gone in the right direction but perhaps we should have been a bit more aware of the effect that bolting on four new tyres for qualifying would have. Unfortunately we were just nowhere in qualifying, struggling with dramatic understeer and leaving me with a difficult weekend ahead starting form the rear of the field in two of the three races.

However, as I often say, many a cloud has a silver lining, and I managed to get home in sixth place in both races one and two which put me on pole for the ten lap final.

I was real proud of my team this weekend, as I always am of course, but this time we went to a bit of extra trouble for the finale by bringing along a couple of awesome grid girls who really spiced up the TRS grid so it was especially good to get them up front when I started from pole.

As for my P1 start? Well, we’d been getting the car more to my liking every time I sat in it and after race two I left Robert and Harold to make the call based on my track map comments. For race 3 I would have to say that they gave me the best car I have had all season!

When the lights went out I got a great start to lead coming off turn 1. It seemed as though I was getting away from the pack when I was coming down the main straight to complete lap 1. I think maybe I was pushing a bit hard going up into the complex on lap 2 and as I swung into turn 4 it all went wrong. I missed the apex and ran wide off the exit of the turn into the kitty litter. Damn, and to make matters worse I was beached!

What could I say? The corner workers did a good job and got me back on track and I finished the race, albeit last, but most importantly classified as a finisher. At least my 100% finishing record was intact!

Ali

Qualifying
Qualifying went to plan but it was unusual because we had a massive tail wind down the front straight but a huge head wind down the back straight and it was interesting to see how this changed the characteristics of the car. We had a three session qualifying schedule and for the first session, the times were a bit off what we were doing in practice.

In the first session, I just grabbed pole by a few hundreds of a second.
For the second session, I visualized where I would go faster. I was happy with the car and it was up to me to put it all together. I smashed the lap record by about 4/10ths and it was nearly 4/10ths faster than the rest of the field. For the last session, all I needed to do was to put in a decent time, as the average of all three sessions would determine my grid spot for the GP. I managed to top the time sheets in all three sessions so this was a good start.

Race One
With Manfield’s weather, you never know what its going to do and a few races before mine it started to rain relatively hard. A quick setup change was done and then we were off. I didn’t get a good start and dropped back to 3rd. My visibility was nil because of the spray. Coming out of turn one around lap four I thought I was going in the right direction, but I obviously wasn’t because I dropped a wheel off the edge of the track and spun. I dropped right to the back but fortunately, there were a few safety cars and I was able to make my way up to 7th.

Race Two
This was a reverse top six and I had finished 7th so that’s where I started. My start wasn’t the best but I didn’t drop any places. I made my way through the messy carnage to finish a solid 4th. This was good for my championship points and I finished in front of my championship rivals.

Race Three
The NZGP is a race I have always looked up to and I would love to
have my name on the silverware that has such a huge history
behind it. I started on pole and got a clean start and a solid first
few laps to create a comfortable gap. Everything went to plan, I
had about a 1.8 second lead over Earl Bamber and Sten Pentus,
and my lap times were very consistent. With about ten laps to go Earl made his move to try to catch me but I had been conserving the car and the tyres so was able to step up the pace, setting faster times than Earl had just done. Earl’s fastest lap was on lap 24 and mine was on lap 25 so I believe I had the race under control.

With five laps remaining the safety car came out which bought us all back together. I got the limiter on the straight because I hit a bump that triggered it, so Bamber got a run on me. I defended, but he crossed me over and made contact with my right rear and that allowed him to gain more momentum and pass me. I lost aero because of being behind him so I dropped by a couple of tenths but I pushed to pass. I almost got through but had to settle for 2nd. I was disappointed not to win as I had lead for 30 of the 35 laps and had the pace over the rest of the field. However, although I missed out on the Grand Prix, we won the four round international part of the series and ultimately that is more important on my CV, as teams look at series wins over individual race wins.

Winning the international championship is a goal I can now tick off and overall, it was a great weekend. We can focus on going into the last round of the championship with a 36 point lead over the remaining competitors.

None of this would have been possible without the fantastic support of my sponsors – Wet & Forget, Giltrap City Toyota, Banklink, Gen-I and XT network and the Giles Motorsport team.

Hampton Downs was a real tough round for my team, but I pushed hard for some improvements and it all worked out pretty well for us at Manfeild.

For Manfeild I was able to bring in an extra person, and it was great to have Peter Cox on the team. Having worked with Peter before we were able to get straight into it and were making progress from the outset. Its tough operating as a single car team but I’m proving it can be done and remember we have built the team up from scratch so as well as having to be competitive on the track we need to be successful off the track in the way of operating efficiently and ensuring that our partners and sponsors expectations are being met at all times.

The new Michelin tyre that was introduced at this round looks like being a really good thing, but it was another component we had to get familiar with as we worked through improving the car in the practices on Thursday and Friday. We made a lot of changes to the car and I was thankful for my engineer Rob Ferguson, as he is so competent and efficient with the car.

By the time qually rolled around on Saturday we still had lots of things we wanted to try and while we had sorted out a really good qualifying strategy we were still not that confident that we had managed to achieve a good balance in the car. Not surprisingly I was only ninth quickest as we continued to make changes.

Race one of the weekend was the Dan Higgins Trophy a really iconic race that carries a lot of kudos among the single seater guy’s. A 20 lapper, timed to start at 5.45 pm. The clouds had been threatening for a few hours and sure enough just before we were due to hit the track the rain arrived.

My guy’s were brilliant and showed why we will be a force in the future. Starting from grid nine on wets, I did what I needed to and made a great start to be 5th as the field exited turn one. The conditions were really challenging but I was able to put a good race together and come home in 3rd place. It was cool to be on the podium again, as well as being a huge reward for my team.

For the reverse top six on Sunday morning I was to start out of grid 4 and the conditions were now dry and we were back to continuing to develop our race package for the Grand Prix. Not a great start, everywhere I looked to go I was ‘boxed in’ and I slipped back. I also needed to keep the car in one piece as there was only a couple of hours between this twelve lap sprint and the 35 lap Grand Prix, so it wasn’t really an option to get carried away with things. I think we finished 9th.

The New Zealand Grand Prix means a lot to my family. It’s almost like a reason for being. It’s pretty special to be waiting on the grid with my Dad and Jennah right there with me and Mum up in the Toyota suite watching. I wish my Grandparents were here to be part of this. I know how proud they would be and what my Dad must be thinking when he’s out on the grid with me waiting for the start. I can understand how important this event is to Ken Smith.

The team had made some changes before the start, as the feeling was that the car needed to be a bit tight at the start but that as the race progressed it would loosen up. Starting out of grid nine we needed a fair bit of luck on our side.

It turned out to be a battle from the moment the lights went out. The car was tight all the way, which by the end left us all a bit perplexed, but now we’ve had a bit of time to reflect on things I think we’ve got it figured out. As for the race all I could do was hang on and bring it home. A couple of guy’s fell out along the way and there were one or two behind me so to be honest it wasn’t one of my best results, 9th again, but we picked up the points and I’m still right in amongst the resident local drivers in the championship.

Now we’re looking forward to Taupo, 19-21 March.

See you there !

Race two I had to start off 12 because of my placing in the first race, the track was dry and I knew I would have to push hard to get up to a decent finishing position. After a hard fought race I managed to get into sixth place.

The third race and the most important, the New Zealand Grand Prix. I started fifth and spent the entire race chasing down Richie Stanaway. I slowly caught Richie and had a couple of goes at passing, but the safety car was deployed late in the race. Richie was slow off the start and blocked the inside so I couldn’t pass and Daniel Jilesen went around the outside of me down the straight so I ended up sixth for the race.

I’m really enjoying the series and learning heaps – each time out I am closer to the front. Aiming for a top 3 at Taupo!

The team have given everything they could in an effort to give me a decent package in this round, and whilst I don’t think we are all that far away we seem to be missing the crucial pieces to the puzzle that will set things right.

We’ve already had a planning meeting based around what we need to do to turn things around and we all hope that things will get better.

Ali

In Race 1 I had a problem on the warm up lap with the clutch sticking, so on the starting grid I was creeping forward and had to hold myself with the brake. I stalled at the start and by the time I got away I was last by a long way. The red flag came out on Lap 2 and while I was waiting for the restart my throttle cable melted. When I fired the car up again it was stuck on full throttle and that was my day over and my first DNF of the series.

Sunday’s racing didn’t get much better. I started Race 2 from 11th position and got a good start, working my way through the field to 6th position by the 4th or 5th lap. I was challenging for 5th place when I missed the apex at turn 2 and dropped back to a group 3 cars, before getting turned around by Stefan at turn 3. We both dropped to the rear of the field and the best I could salvage was a 9th place finish.

I started Race 3 from 5th on the grid for the 20 lap NZ Motor Cup and was trying to get past Lucas into 4th, but ended up being passed by a very good move from Earl and dropped back to 6th by the end of Lap 1. I stayed with Earl for most of the race and while up ahead Mitch was having a problem on the straights, which allowed me to get passed him into 5th. Unfortunately, I ran wide at the hairpin going into turn 4 with 2 laps to go which cost me 2 places, before running wide again at turn 2 on the last lap and dropping another 2 spots before finishing in a very disappointing 9th. Maybe the run of 3rd places I was getting in the first 2 rounds weren’t so bad after all??

I was pretty gutted with the entire weekend’s results, but after an evaluation of what went wrong, I’ve put it all behind me and I’m really looking forward to the NZGP at Manfield and some good results. Thanks to all my sponsors Jilesen Contractors, King Country Quarries, Ongarue Transport, and my friends and family for their continued support – even on the hard weekends.

Not a good weekend for us at Timaru. Qualifying was in the rain and since I had never driven a Toyota in the wet, it was a difficult run but I talked about the car and my driving after the session and I was confident that I would do well if we had another wet run.

Race one I was into seventh by the second lap but lost a place to Earl Bamber at turn four. I spent the race chasing Earl hard doing my fastest laps trying to get past but unfortunately I went over the edge and dropped a wheel off the left hander at turn one; spun out and the car wouldn’t restart.

The track was drying by race two but everyone was on wets so it was going to be a difficult race. I had some really good early speed making up two places in the first couple of laps and was chasing Mitch Evans when my rear wheel hit the white line going into the hairpin and the rears locked. I hit the wall backwards but there was minimal damage.

The last race was horrible conditions as the car had no grip on a greasy track and I struggled my way to the finish but in the end was happy enough to finish.

Hampton Downs next – must be better!

This year we elected not to go to Queenstown or travel around sightseeing in between rounds. As well as conserving resources as a team we needed to keep our eye’s on the ball so to speak. The # 69 Radio Hauraki / Supercharge Batteries Toyota had come through round one pretty much unscathed and wasn’t in need of major repair between rounds so it was a good opportunity for the team to just chill out and relax,….in Timaru.

Setting up our pit again on Wednesday made me stop and look again. My guy’s do a great job and our pit bay looks the business. Robert does a mean job on the car and all those fabulous Valvoline products ensure that it’s the best it could be. I had time to critique my data with engineer Barrie Jones and we picked up a few more things when compared to last year as well as do the track walk and check out the new seal on the circuit.

Testing and practice initially we were just a bit off but then with a concerted effort on Thursday night we were able to get back on the pace where we needed to be on Friday.

Qualifying Saturday morning was still not quite as good as it could have been especially when for quite a while I was P4 but then fading at the end to P6. However I was confident that we had the pace and could get up there in race one in the afternoon.

Sure enough as I predicted we were on to it, enjoying a great run to finish in 5^th place and on the tail of the leading group of cars. Better news was to come when it was announced that five cars had gone under the old track record and I was number four of the five, awesome. The car was great and the boys had done a great job. My sister Jennah flew in from Auckland the night before to assist with the hosting of our corporate guests for this round. I’m sure this must have been the special ingredient that got us going!

Race 2 on Sunday morning and the weather looked decidedly dodgy and there was much concern among the officials for the safety of the drivers. Starting from P6 at least I would be on the favoured side of the track for the start. When the lights went out I was really hooked up good and got great drive into turn one slotting into fourth place behind Daniel Jileson. I had a great dice with Daniel for a few laps, reminded me of formula ford days, it was cool and Dan is a real clean racer as we got close, but never touched. I got the upper hand this time and I was now clear in third place. Things were looking good, I was chipping away at the gap to second place and the battle behind for fourth was getting further behind me in my mirrors.

Then at about half distance it all went badly wrong for me. Jamie McNee had spun at turn 3 and was unable to restart causing the safety car to come out, closing up the field. My third place was now under threat as the track was rapidly drying and I was on a really aggressive wet set-up.

First Stefan Webling attacked at the re-start. I did all I could but eventually he got by me for third. My front tyres were literally flying to bits and Andrew Waite was closing in fast and there was nothing I could do but hang on and try to keep the tyres as cool as possible. It was inevitable, Andrew was onto me and got past as my tyres by now were absolutely shot. I managed to hang on to fifth place at the flag ahead of Mitch Evans. A bit disappointing, what might have been and all that stuff.

Good news though. Race three and starting out of grid two, it was a bit tricky trying to determine what the weather was going to do, but all cars ended up starting on dry tyres. Waiting on the grid though it was drizzling, not a good look. I made a great start to lead the field round on to the back straight. Mitch Evans just managed to slip by me on the sweeper as I was real cautious, but Earl Bamber made a great pass and got by us both into the lead. As the rain worsened I was slipping and sliding all over the place as was everybody else. I had a couple of minor off’s and was happy to complete the race in fifth right behind Sten Pentus who looked to be sliding around every bit as much as me.

Overall a good round for me, if a little bit unlucky, especially in the Timaru Herald feature race. I’m really pleased with the way my team is performing and we’re having a great time too. A special thanks to all the fans at Teretonga and Timaru, it was great to see you out supporting the Toyota Racing Series Championship and I’m real happy that you enjoyed the show we put on.

Ciao for row,

Ali

This event was always going to be a big one for me. Heading into this years championship driving for my own team again meant that a whole range of new challenges would be waiting for me, challenges that I had to rise to because as the driver I need to lead the team. Sure, I have great people around me but at the end of the day it all comes down to me.

The trip from Auckland to Invercargill this year was uneventful and most enjoyable, unlike last year when my own personal health was far from the best. We set-up our pit garage on the Wednesday and completed final preparations before the Thursday and Friday’s program got underway. The DART International Toyota FT 40 looked great in it’s Radio Hauraki/ Supercharge Batteries livery as it rolled out onto the track for the first practice sessions. Kerry McIntosh and his team at TCC Solutions in Penrose have done their usual magic and created another visually striking racecar for me.

Throughout testing and practice we made steady progress, I was a bit short on mileage after the winter lay-off with only the pre-season shakedown at Manfeild since last season, so it was always going to be real tough running against guy’s coming into the series with a whole winters worth of racing under their belts. I think the most difficult thing was getting back into the mode of giving good reliable feedback to my engineer and figuring out whether it was me, or the car that needed the adjustments.

Qualifying went well and for a while we were P5, only to get bumped back right at the end of the session to P7. I spent too much time making adjustments where I think that all I really needed was a bit more tyre temperature which would have come with some more laps.

Unusually for Teretonga the weather was fine and quite warm, albeit with quite a brisk breeze blowing most of the time from varying directions. My plan for the races was to continue with tuning the car and build up my knowledge bank. Race one was a good effort, I made up a place and kept out of trouble to finish in sixth after a race long tussle for position with Jamie McNee.

Sunday I called for some small changes for the second race. My start was not that good but I held on to P7 in the run down to turn one but as the race went on I was struggling as not only was the car not getting faster but the track was getting slower as well, nevertheless seventh at the chequered flag provided me with another solid haul of points.

Race three on Sunday afternoon just didn’t turn out the way I had hoped. I called for more changes along those lines previously tried, as I still really believed that was the direction to go in. Hindsight is a great thing and the reality is that I was just going too soft with the settings.

When the lights went out I made a good start and made up a couple of places to be P5 at the end of lap one but very soon as the tyres started to heat up I was in trouble with a lack of grip and was fading fast. As I dropped back I became caught up in a battle with two other cars and unfortunately with two laps to go my front wing was knocked adrift. Interestingly enough it didn’t seem to effect the car at all, mind you the car wasn’t that good before so I would say that its hardly surprising that the handling didn’t get any worse.

The down side to this incident was that I received the mechanical flag, meaning that I had to pit to check the damage, which I did. However I managed to get out of the pits and complete the last lap and pick up the points for eleventh place.

Teretonga really highlighted for me the need to be ‘on to it’ early in the event, and as we de-briefed from the round we were able to pick up all sorts of little bits and pieces that we hoped would help us at Timaru in a week’s time. The team was working really well with Harold, Robert and Logan doing a great job and once Lance arrived it really seemed like I had got all the right people helping me. Well done Guy’s!

Coupled with our need to improve its worthy of note how the level of competition has stepped up this year. The entire field is really competitive with internationals like Earl Bamber, Sten Pentus and Lucas Foresti as well as Mitch Evans and my old mates Andrew Waite, Daniel Jileson, Stefan Webling and Jamie McNee, the racing is just awesome. Hopefully at Timaru I’ll be able to make the gains that will move me up the field a little further.

That’s All 4 Now,

Ali

We went into qualifying blind as practice had been dry; qualifying was now going to be wet. We made a call to go with a full wet setup. At the beginning of the session we were quick but towards the end as the track dried we lost our pace. It was a disappointing qualifying for the team to end up 8th after been 3rd in practice. The mistake was being on a full wet setup. A mistake we wouldn’t make again later in the weekend.

Race 1

We got a good start off the line and went up the inside of Alastair Wootten but lost out in the second part of the first two corners losing a few spots. It’s very hard to pass around Timaru but we fought our way back to 6th after being as far down as 9th.

Sunday

Race 2

Going into the race we were starting from grid 8. We were thinking that if we could get to 6th to have pole for the reverse grid race would be good. It was a wet track and the racing had been declared wet so we had to run wet tyres. On the formation lap it was clear to see the track was basically dry. We had chosen to go for a full dry setup with wet tyres, a call that would win us the race. Off the start we went from 8th to 4th in the first corner as the inside row struggled for traction. At the end of the straight, I drove up the inside of Alastair Wootten for 3rd place. It was tight but I made the pass stick. It was then straight onto the back of Daniel Jilesen. He ran wide at the hairpin and we just got up the inside and the better drive out before the last corner to take second place. The leader was Sten Pentus. We hunted him down and had a great battle at the front. I tried to pass him at the end of the straight around the outside. This didn’t work and I got huge understeer and went off into the grass. At that point, I thought our race might have ended in the wall but managed to pull the car around and back onto the track. We lost a lot of time to the leader but a lap later the safety car came out. On the restart, it was full attack on the leader and this time we managed to cross him over at the end of the straight and take the lead. From there it was just about making it to the end. Running wets on a full dry track the tyres were ripping themselves to pieces but we held it to the end to record our first win of the season. I have to give full credit to the team for this win. A call that costs us so much in qualifying then the next day won us a race.

Race 3

After winning the feature race we would now start from 6th for the final race of the weekend. As we went out of the pits the weather was fine so we were all on slicks but as we arrived on the grid a rain shower started to come though making the track very wet and slippery. On the warm up lap I did my best to get as much tyre temperature as possible. Off the start you had to be sure not to get wheel spin. We got a flying start just squeezing the gap in between Stefan Webling and Sten Pentus and then making our way to 3rd by the first corner. We got a good run onto the back straight and made a dive for second place just getting the pass done. At the same time, the leader went off so we took the lead on the first lap. We held this to the end. The hardest part of the race was knowing how hard to push with the conditions changing lap to lap. It was very easy to over step the mark and go off. It was fantastic to take another race win and take out the round win.

We are looking forward to the next round at the new Hampton Downs Circuit on February 5-7th.

Thank you to my sponsors The Mad Butcher, V’n'C Cocktails, Tissot Watches and to the XXX Motorsport Team for all their hard work.

Earl Bamber