TOUGH TIMES AT TAUPO

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December 13, 2016

Alexandra Whitley

photo credit: Geoff Ridder Photography

Over the weekend the 9th, 10th and 11th of December round 2 of the SsangYong Actyon Racing series was held at the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in Taupo.

I went into the weekend feeling good, my weekend turned out a bit like the weather bright and sunny one minute and rain the next.

Qualifying 7th from 28 cars I had some work to do in race one to catch the leaders, hot off the gun I was in 5th place and catching fast when my tailgate came dislodged and I finished in last place after a tour through pit lane and my race was cut short. Hoping to redeem myself in the twilight race that afternoon I started from 28th place, it was tricky conditions as the track was half dry with wet and dry racing lines making passing manoeuvres very tricky. The Waikato SsangYong was on fire and I was determined to move forward. I was able to drive to 14th place, passing a whopping 14 utes.

Race 3 was early on Sunday morning and our grids were set by lap times from the previous races.

I started from 6th on the grid, getting off on a great start the top 6 were nose to tail the whole race and broke away from the rest of the field. I moved forward and finished in 5th place.

Grids for the last race are set by the accumulation of points from all the other races and as I received no points from race one it really hurt my starting position and I started from grid 16. Off to a great start I moved forward strait away driving round the outside of others into turn one. Keeping as smooth and precise as I could as I knew I would burn my tyres up coming through the field. I had worked my way to 10th place and caught the next bunch of utes. When I was caught up in 2 other utes battle and as one speared off track and hit the grass he spun back into me and almost spinning me too! I lost a huge amount of ground and a few places.

With only a few laps to go I pushed hard caught back up and made it to 11th place.

This has been the most disappointing round for me as I expected a lot higher results for myself after the experience of the last few seasons. Although every race I made huge gains moving forward I didn’t achieve the end result I wanted. I have a lot of work ahead of myself over Christmas to repair the ute. I am extremely determined to prove I am a contender in the championship and I will be back next year stronger than ever before.

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