Unlucky Lobb Holds On To Third

Caine Lobb and the Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team did not have their luckiest of race weekends but after some hard fought battles managed to hold onto third place in the championship dropping from second in the standings.

Lobb began the weekend in the ENZED V8 Ute Series at Pukekohe Park Raceway very well indeed with quick times in the practice sessions followed by claiming the fastest lap in qualification on Saturday morning.

Although he was awarded the maximum 39 points for his achievement, the actual starting place for race one was to be determined by a marble draw.

Ironically Lobb, the fastest driver in qualifying, drew the highest numbered ball which placed the Whangarei race driver at the very back of the starting grid for the first race of the weekend.

That afternoon the ENZED V8 Utes lined up for the start and at the flag set off for the first corner in a tight pack.

Into that corner contact between drivers Simon Beirne and James Urquhart caused the entire pack to take evasive action slowing them to a rapid halt whilst Beirne flew down the track sideways before slamming into the armco.

Lobb going at full speed from the rear of the pack and heading into the corner was unable to pull up the car in time and skidding on the grass also went into the safety barrier.

Although the contact with the armco did not appear hard he was out of the race with a broken wheel and suspension.

"It looks as though he was steering away from the wall and it was the wheel itself which hit so although the contact wasn't that great, unfortunately it ripped out the suspension and broke the left hand wheel." said team owner Mark Cromie.

With Lobb out of the first race the team resigned themselves to getting the car prepared for a new start the next day where Lobb would start from pole position based on his blistering qualification lap on Saturday morning of one minute 09.552 seconds ahead of Championship leader Matt Lockwood with one minute 09.808.

In race two Lobb pulled off the start line in first, a position he was able to hold onto throughout the race against intense pressure from Auckland driver Mack Peach followed closely by Matt Lockwood right on the bumper.

Unfortunately for Lobb his luck wasn't in this weekend and making a small error coming out of the Metal Man esses on the penultimate lap Peach was able to sneak through and move into the lead.

"I went onto the curb coming out of the esses onto the straight and lost the back end a bit which meant that Mack (Peach) could get a run on me." said Lobb.

Lobb maintained second place against Lockwood however and the three crossed the finish line in that order in a tight pack quite some distance ahead of the remaining drivers.

The series organisers later claimed that the morning's race was "The best ute race seen in New Zealand" due to many of the field racing bumper to bumper throughout and of course the extremely close contest at the front between the three fastest qualifiers Lobb, Lockwood and Peach.

"We had a lot of people coming to us in disbelief over how close the three were and how well they raced giving each other racing room and not making any contact despite them racing bumper to bumper." said Caine Lobb's manager Brian Craig.

For the final race, Lobb was at a major disadvantage once again starting on the back row of the grid.

Further disadvantaged by some laps being controlled by the safety car and then yellow flags at the hairpin, Lobb was miraculously able to make his way from 14th to eighth place before the race was prematurely finished by red flag with two laps remaining.

"For me there was really only one place to pass cars which was at the hairpin down the end of the long straight and they were waving double yellow flags there after Graham Beirne went off so there was no way of moving up any more places after that." said Lobb.

Drivers are not permitted to overtake other cars when yellow flags are shown for that section of the circuit.

The red flagging of the race was due to a very serious crash where rookie driver Steve Elliot put his race car into the wall at full speed while climbing the notorious Pukekohe hill.

The next round for Caine Lobb, Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team and the ENZED V8 Ute Series is at the A1GP event over the weekend of January 23-25 2009.

He will go to that meeting with 227 points to second placed Mack Peach on 249 and current leader and defending champion Matt Lockwood with 284.

Maximum points for a round would include pole position and three race wins at 39 points for each or a total of 156 points.