I started the race well and made my way to 3rd position, the racing was really tough, it was like a 60-minute sprint race! After making a lightning quick driver Leanne came out first place! With the cars so evenly matched and two long straights, there is plenty of rubbing, bump drafting and getting hung out to dry. After experiencing the SsangYong shuffle Leanne lost a few spots and we crossed the line in 11th.

I had to re-hydrate, re-fuel and recover quickly for my next stint in the SuperUte. It was now heavily raining, and I was looking forward to carving my way through the field in the wet. We soon made our way to 1st in class and 8th overall. Unfortunately, with 20mins to go we had problems with our compressor, which meant could not change gears as we run paddle shift. The SDT team worked with quick hands to fix the problem and get us back out on-track. In this time we went a lap down on the leaders and finished 16th overall. Multiple cars in our class had excursions in the rain, so even with our paddle shift fault we still won the weekend. We were crowned Class 1 New Zealand National Endurance Champions! But It wasn’t over yet, I still had one more day of racing to go!

The sun was shining and Leanne and I were pumped for the final 90 minutes of SsangYong Racing for 2018! After drawing 7th in the marble draw, we were off to a great start. Thanks to Cam and his thorough spanner work. The Waikato SsangYong was an absolute weapon for the first half an hour of the race, making my way up to 4th position. I then started to struggle with the handling of the ute as the tyres got hotter and hotter, but with another speedy pit stop and driver change we popped out in 3rd place. It was Leanne’s turn to bring it home, she was holding her ground and not making it easy for others trying to pass. Leanne did a stellar job to bring it to the finish in 8th place. I felt bad for her when I had to hand the ute over, when I knew it wasn’t 100% right.