2010/06

Defending series champion Craig Baird was back to his best at an eventful fourth round of the 2009/10 Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championship at the Timaru International Motor Raceway over the weekend, qualifying quickest and winning two of the three races to claim round honours from series young gun Courtney Letica and Daniel Gaunt.

Having found himself playing second fiddle to Triple X Motorsport teammate David Reynolds at the second and third rounds of this season's Battery Town series, 21-time New Zealand champion Baird knew that he was going to have to pull something extra out of the bag at this weekend's round. And as it turned out- that's exactly what he did, turning the tables on both Reynolds and Gaunt in the treacherous track conditions on Saturday morning before running away with the first race of the weekend later that afternoon, and setting a new lap record in the process.

He then fought back to catch and pass fellow front row starter and early leader Reynolds to win the weekend's second race on Sunday morning before capping off a round winning weekend with a safe third place in the final reverse top six grid race feature race in the afternoon.

The result is that Baird has further extended the series points lead he established - in Reynold's absence - at the first round of the 2009/10 Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championship series at Pukekohe back in November last year, heading to the penultimate round at Feilding's Manfeild motor racing circuit in three week's time with a 145 point margin over Matt Halliday and a 168 point buffer over third placed Daniel Gaunt.

The Australian shadowed Baird in qualifying and crossed the finish line close behind in the first two races, but lost any chance of a place on the round podium when he was forced out of the all-action reverse top six grid final with a holed radiator.

The big story of that race, however, was the debut series win by category young gun Courtney Letica.

After strong finishes in the first two races the 21-year-old former kart and MINI Challenge front-runner started the reverse top six grid 16-lap Battery Town final from pole then showed incredible maturity to control the race from the front, withstanding race-long pressure from established series stars Halliday and Baird to claim a popular win and with it the second spot on the round podium.

It was a deeply impressive performance and one the young Auckland driver was justifiably proud of.

"It was just an amazing race and to have kept both Matty and Bairdo, who were no doubt quicker than me in places, behind me was fantastic. But, you know, it was there and we took it and for that I really have to thank my engineer. He was on the radio the whole time just telling me to keep my head, to calm down and relax, and to be honest I can't imagine what I would have done without those words in my head. With them we just kept our lines, didn’t make any mistakes and got the result."

Behind the fast-starting Letica, Halliday and Baird in that race, came Jonny Reid, Daniel Gaunt and David Reynolds.

Initially it looked like either Halliday or Baird would eventually find a chink in Letica's armour but as the race developed, and both tried repeated probes, Letica remained resolute. In fact Reynolds was the only casualty, being spat out of what in effect was a six-car freight train after contact while he disputed fourth place with Reid.

Reid set the fastest race lap in the heat of the battle but like teammate Halliday could not find a way past the car in front.

Because he failed to finish the double points The Mad Butcher 100km min-enduro race at the second round of the 2009/10 Battery Town series in Christchurch before Christmas, Gardiner still trails series newcomer Simon McLennan in the overall points standings but with another category round victory he has closed the gap to just 14 points.

Another former kart champion and more recently a front-runner in the Formula Ford class, Gardiner was clearly reveling in the slippery track conditions qualifying a series best sixth overall and claiming two eighths and a tenth in the races to finish the weekend ninth overall.

"Look, our cars are six years old so we're never going to be as good but certainly under wet conditions," he said, "we can close the gap with the 997s. Obviously their horsepower plays a big part but in these conditions our anti-lock braking system helps us close the gap a little bit, so, as you can imagine, I was praying for rain."

1. Simon McLennan 474

2. Hugh Gardiner 460

3. Simon Evans 353

4. Colin Caldwell 242

5. Allan Dippie 166

6. Rob Steele 111

1. Craig Baird 1033 points

2. Matt Halliday 868

3. Daniel Gaunt 835

4. Jonny Reid 781

5. David Reynolds 718

6. Courtney Letica 563

7. Andrew Bagnall 540

8. Mitch Cunningham 494

9. Shane McKillen 491

10. Ant Pedersen 394

11. Paul Kelly 317

12. Mike Morton 108