The second to last meeting of our summer season and I needed a good meeting if we were to have any chance of catching Matt Lockwood who is first in the series and keeping Dean McMillan who is third in the series behind us. 
Friday/Saturday testing: Testing on Friday went pretty well for the Mainline Construction team. The car was handling well and we didn’t have to make any major changes. We were the quickest all day. We had one test session on Saturday morning which we were also the fastest in, so the team was extremely happy.
Saturday Qualifying: I was the first one out the gate, it took a couple of laps for the tires to get to there optimum temperature, but by that stage it started drizzling and the track was really greasy so I came in. The team told me that I had the second fastest time so far, I sat in the pit lane for nearly 5 minutes which seemed like an eternity waiting for the drizzle to stop, luckily it did and the track dried back out again so I went back out to see if I could improve my time, which I did setting a time half a second faster than anyone else, the team was stoked.  That was our 4th pole position out of 6 meetings for the season.Saturday Race 1: I got a good start, had a little bit of wheel spin but still got off the line well. Matt and myself were side by side around turn one until we got the corner they call splash, where I managed to get around the outside of him and into the lead. Each lap I was pulling a bit of a gap so by the end of the race I had a pretty convincing lead, I also set the fastest lap of the race. I was glad we could carry the pace we had at Pukekohe to Manfield and beat Matt at his home track. Sunday Race 2: Top 10 reverse grid, so I was starting off 10th. I got a good start but got cut off coming out of turn one, and then the same thing happened coming out of the hairpin which made my car bog down, so Matt and the other front runners where able to pull a gap on me. I slowly made my way through the traffic trying to catch up to Matt. The car still felt really good and I was pulling them in, but I ran out of laps. I finished 4th right behind Matt which wasn’t to bad because it still meant we had enough points to start off the pole for the final race, Once again I set the fastest lap of the race only 0.028 off the lap record.
Sunday Race 3:  I was starting off pole; I got a terrible start and missed second gear, after the first corner I was back in sixth. I had a big job in front of me if I was going to catch up to Matt. The car was still handling perfectly and I was passing cars left, right and center. With only 2 laps to go I was right on the back of Matt Going into the last corner on the track Matt left the door open and I snuck in underneath him (see third photo), on the exit of the corner he squeezed me up onto the ripple strip, which made my car bounce back into him. This allowed Dean who was behind us to get past Matt as well as myself. I was now in the lead with one lap to go; I pulled away from both Dean and Matt to win the Race and the weekend, there was an inquiry into the contact between Matt and myself but the officials deemed it a racing incident and I kept my position.  I was stoked with the result and so was the Mainline Construction team. We managed to gain some valuable points and close in on Matt in the championship standings and also managed to set the fastest lap for race 3 which gave us a clean sweep for the weekend.
The last round will be Easter weekend at Taupo and Matt is still leading the series going in to it, mathematically I can still win the series but we will need to have another blinder weekend and Matt would need a disaster, behind me there are several capable of taking my second position if I have a disaster so the pressure is on. If only we hadn’t had such a terrible reverse grid race at the first round where our car had almost got written off by a back marker we may now be in the lead instead of chasing for it ………..but ………”that’s racing” …….. as they say.
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Thanks and regards
 
Chris Hanley
Pro 7 Plus #90
 
2008/09 Rookie of the Year
2008/09 Team of the Year
2008/09 2nd in Class