2019-2020
Ryco 24.7 V8 ute Championship
Round 3 Manfield - 14 Feb thru 16 Feb 2020
Onto Round 3 of the Ryco 24.7 NZ V8 Ute Championship and yet another race track I had never been to let alone turned any laps at. A bit of a trek for the category this round with most teams from the Auckland area so I wasn't the only one having to travel for this round. I wasn't really expecting too much at this track, just to keep on the black stuff and keep finishing races while accumulating points I guess.
Was wrapt to have both Casey and Brad join me for the weekend. Gotta mention how well Brad did winning the NZ Production Saloon Champs the previous weekend in Cromwell, Great Job Buddy! Was also very lucky to have Brad spot a cracked front brake rotor on our ute which could of been disastrous if it let go during a race. Thankfully Paul Manuell came to the rescue with some spares and we were away racing again, Thanks heaps Paul :)
I was pleasantly surprised to pick up track knowledge relatively easily and found the track quite to my liking actually. You definately need to keep it flowing and smooth and during one of the on-track sessions over the weekend our 811 V8 Ute was only 2.8 secs off the leaders lap time. Very pleased!
I scorched the tyres somewhat on the Saturday but managed the high track temp better on the Sunday. We came away with two Top 10 finshes and now find ourselves 9th overall in the championship. Absolutely stoked to be there and now really looking forward to the final round back Hampton Downs at the end of March. 4 points sepeerate 8th-10th places in the championship so it's gonna be Game On!
Congratulations to Jake Stoneman who topped the charts for the weekend in his first ever V8 Ute Championship meeting. Congrats also to Paul and Glen Collinson on their podiums for the round. So onto Hampton Downs for the final Round 4 on 27th-29th March. See Ya's there. Cheers from Flash.
