Round 4 at Hampton Downs was not one of the best weekends I’ve ever had in my racing career, and is probably a round I’d rather forget. The practise sessions on Friday went well where I was 4th quickest in the morning and finished the afternoon with the 3rd best time, but all the times were very close again. In Saturday qualifying I was 3rd quickest until the last 2 laps when the times really came down and I ended up qualifying in 5th position.

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.