We were asked to be a support class at the Hampton Downs 501. I have been working hard over the winter on my fitness, finding sponsors and getting every last tenth out of my Waikato race ute. We experienced the extremes of weather conditions from showers and heavy rain to pools of standing water, then beautiful sunshine. Finishing on the podium multiple times I have set the bench mark for my season and banked championship points early on.

We turned up for Fridays practice feeling positive about the weekend ahead. We knew both myself and the Race ute were ready to race. As the rain continued to fall all our practices bar one were wet, I was in the top 5 fastest on the time sheets, but when the sun came out I only just scrapped into the top 10. We needed to find some speed!

Qualifying was early Saturday morning I found some clean air and set a good time, but not good enough and qualified 10th. I was happy with how the ute felt the day before so I knew I could push harder in the race and move forward. Our race was delayed as the rain was dangerously heavy. Eventually we were sent out and I got off to a great start and soon found myself 3 wide into turn one and up to 6th place! I was pushed wide and off track, mud sprayed completely over my car and for a spilt second I lost sight! Holding onto the steering and foot flat I kept hard into the pedal, unfortunately I lost all the positions I had just made. The slippery track made it tough to pass as I moved forward and finished in 9th place.