Cox takes climatic Suzuki race win

Rangiora’s 19-year-old Chris Cox won Saturday’s Suzuki Swift Sport Cup race by a three second margin after ten intense laps that saw series leader AJ Lauder, Christchurch’s Hamish Cross and Taupo’s Mark Gibson all take turns at the front of the field around the Manfeild Autocourse (11 February).

Second across the line was Karaka’s Andrew Vincent with Hamilton’s Shaun Lawrence climbing from eighth to third, while Cross and Gibson placed further down the field.

The opening race of three for the weekend’s penultimate round of the championship, the results were almost an inversion of the qualifying placings.

Although Turua’s Lauder set fastest time mid-way through the morning qualifying session, the remainder of the field couldn’t bridge the 0.4 second gap with ten cars spread by 0.6 seconds. Second fastest was Cross, with Cox third and Gibson fourth.

Facing a stiff easterly headwind for the afternoon race, sunshine allowed spectators clear view of the cars as they all played cat and mouse games that drew teams’ from their garages to see what the crowd was cheering about.

Taking an early swipe at championship leader Lauder, Hamish Cross ran around the outside of the Turua teen at the long sweeping first turn to emerge at the front. Following behind, Cox, Jamie Gaskin and Mark Gibson kept in touch with the leading pair.

Lap after lap the changing of positions added pressure to the drivers’ duties with a number running themselves out of track and race win contention.

“It was pretty rough racing out there, I just had to keep my nose clean the whole time and am just over the moon with the win,” said Cox.

“I don’t know why so many got it wrong at the hairpin as I kept it on the track. We know we have to claw points back on AJ and I think a few are getting a bit desperate - there is a lot of racing going on now.”

Cox added 76 points to his championship tally to overtake Lawrence for second in the standings.

Suzuki New Zealand motorsport manager Darren Stevens fielded a number of complimentary remarks at the intensity of racing.

“I was talking to a number of the international drivers’ here for the Grand Prix and they were jumping up and down at how close the racing and overtaking was. They wanted to be out there, be amongst it; it was a great show put on by the Suzuki drivers’ and helped a lot by the track and weather.

Series co-ordinator Paul Burborough said there were a number of manoeuvres under scrutiny that will be resolved later upon reviewing video footage and other evidence.

“It’s a by-product of such close racing, that someone is going to get an advantage when the opportunity wasn’t necessarily there. The drivers’ do it all in the heat of the moment and it’s possible a couple may have penalties. But overall I don’t think they could have put on a better show – they certainly were the star entertainers of the racing today.”

Preceding the Sunday morning racing will be the Suzuki supported Grid Kids duathlon series, where age group school children will run and bike the Manfeild course. There are three age group categories with prizes and participation medals for completing the challenge.

The Suzuki drivers then take to the track from 10am with the ten lap race a reverse grid from today’s results. The weekend concludes with a 12-lap race scheduled to start from 1:49pm.