Practice Started on Thursday and there were 3 test sessions. The First session was very wet the car was handling really well in the rain. The 2^nd session was also very wet so we decided  not to go out. In the last session of the day the track was finally dry and it was time to put on the slick tyres the car was going well in the dry.

Friday: official testing there were two twenty minute sessions

My first session was really short as on the 3^rd lap I put a wheel off on the outside of the hairpin and slid across the track into retirement.

In the second session the car had an over steer and I was struggling to put in good lap times as the rear end was lacking traction.

Saturday:  In the morning there was the qualifying session I was struggling with the handling of the car again. The team were going through the car trying to find the problem but it was proving difficult. I qualified on grid 10

Race one:  We had made some changes to the car and looked over the data so I could change my driving style a little.  I started off grid 10 and got a good start but at the first corner there was a crash in front of me so I slowed down and got hit from behind and spun off. I restarted the car and got going again at the rear of the field and I made it back to 11^th place.

Sunday:  race two I started off grid 10 and had a battle with the cars in front of me. I got into 8^th by the end of the race.

Race three: I started off grid 8 and the car was going really well, I was having a big battle with the cars around me but on lap 6 the car in front of me spun and rolled across the track in front of me and I ran into his car and that was the end of the race.

It was very eventful weekend and by the end of it I had learnt a lot about the car and driving on a more technical track. When we go to Hampton Downs in 2 weeks I should have a really good car and with a little luck on my side things should be a lot better.

Thank you for your help and support once again.

Regards

Damon.

Timaru was a much better round, while I didn’t have the pace of the absolute fastest I wasn’t too far behind so I was much more competitive. I enjoyed this round a lot more! I qualified in 7^th which was a little disappointing as I felt the car had more speed than what showed on the time sheets. In the first race the front wing got taken off during an incident in turn one so I had to pit thus finishing fairly well down in the order. The second race I started off eight due to the average of my two fastest times in qualifying, off the start and first lap I gained two places and was in sixth, which was where I finished despite a very hard charge from the red bull driver behind me. Third race I started off pole because of the reverse top six of the second race. It was a tough first lap with cold tyres and oil on the track but I put my head down and steadily pulled away from second place until a crash on the 8^th lap caused a safety car to come out and the race finished under safety car – so I had a win!

Wednesday was the first day of testing for the weekend it was the international test day for most of the overseas drivers but as I hadn’t done the test days in December at Manfield I got to drive at Teretonga instead.  This was my first time driving the Zero Fees Toyota. I had 4 test sessions during the day.

This season I am being run by Victory Motor Racing. Gary Orton is the head mechanic and Dad is the second mechanic. Hagen Pischel is the data engineer. After each session he reads the data from the car and makes any necessary adjustments to the car and Hagen helps me with my driving techniques.

Thursday was unofficial testing and it was the first time all the drivers were on the track together. There was another four 20 minute sessions the car was going really well and I was getting used to the extra horsepower compared to the Formula Renault.

Friday was official practice. There were 2 test sessions and by the end of the day I was really happy with how everything was going.

Saturday I had qualifying in the morning. With a set of new tyres on the car I went out and started to warm the car and tyres up. After a few laps of warm up I started to get into a good rhythm and the tyres started to come on. I did some fast laps then the session was red flagged as another competitor had a crash I went back to the pits and talked to the team. Once the track was cleared I went out and did two fast laps before the session ended. I was 3^rd fastest.

Race one: I started off grid 3 and didn’t get a very good start, a car on the outside row started to pull across onto the inside line in front of me he slightly misjudged where I was on the track and his exhaust touched my front wing and damaged the side of it. It affected the handling of the car and it had an understeer for the next lap. On lap 2 the wing broke and with the down force gone I lost some steering and went off the track into the tyre wall. Not a good way to end my first race.

Sunday Race two: this was the Spirit of a Nation Cup and I started off grid 4 and got a good start and got into 3^rd place after the first corner. But the race was red flagged as there had been a crash on the start line. There was a full restart so I started off grid 4 again and passed into the first corner to get into 3^rd I then held that position for the rest of the race. I got my first podium in the Toyota Racing Series. The team did a good job repairing my car as it went really well.

Race three: The weather had closed in and the track was very wet. I started off grid 4 and got a lot of wheel spin at the start I went back to 5^th and started to battle with the car in  4^th because the track was wet there was a lot of spray off the car in front this made it very difficult to see. After a few laps I passed the car in front and got back into 4^th. The safety car came out as another car had gone off the track. There was a restart and I got passed again. After a few more laps I got back into 4^th and stayed there until the chequered flag. I had the fastest lap time in this race but because of the lack of visibility I didn’t want to risk trying to pass.

Thank you for your help and support

Regards

Damon

I’m part of Trevor Sheumack’s team and my team mate this year are Scott Pye and Josh Hill. I’m really looking forward to this as Scott is an experience driver and I can learn from him. Josh Hill will bring a lot of profile to our team too.

I’ve been doing some pre – season testing with Andy Neale in the Formula Renault at Ruapuna which was really beneficial and I was setting some good times.

I have also been racing in a Mini Cooper S in the National Championship Production Series. The first round was Pukekohe where I didn’t really perform as well I had wanted leaving the round in 5th overall. Ruapuna was much better as we had great car speed and I had learnt how to drive the Mini in a more aggressive way rather than driving the Toyota which if you hit someone you basically rip corners off.

A couple of weeks ago Toyota held a test session for all drivers where most of the drivers that are racing this season took part in. Scott and I were setting virtually identical times which I feel were very competitive with the rest of the teams. The season’s testing coupled with a great team this year puts me in good stead to have a good season and I’m really looking forward to it getting underway this weekend!

Yesterday we had a club day at Teretonga. It was my last outing in the Formula Renault that I have had to practise in to get ready for the Toyota Racing Series.

I had a really good meeting and won the 4 single seater races.
Also at the weekend we took the Toyota to the track and put it on display so that fans could see the car in its new orange and black colour scheme with the sponsor’s names on it.

The car looks great with its metallic orange PPG paint from Southern Paints and Clive Campbell from Advantage Signs has made a great job of the graphics.

I’m really looking forward to the first round at Teretonga on 14, 15, 16 January and the test days earlier in the week.

We are looking forward to the arrival of my engineer Hagen Pischel from Germany and the rest of the Victory Automotive team from Nelson to be ready for the International test day on Wednesday the 12th.

Thank you all for your help and support.

Regards
Damon.

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