Lobb Moves in on Leader After Mint Round

Caine Lobb has retained his third place and moved in on the leaders of the ENZED V8 Ute Series after his excellent showing at the A1GP event at Taupo Motorsport Park over the weekend.

Starting the weekend with third fastest time in qualification on Saturday morning Lobb went on to win the first race of the round against a hard charging Matt Lockwood who very nearly stole the win after a mistake made by the Northland driver.

After losing the place Lobb applied pressure on the points leader sitting right on Lockwood's rear bumper heading into the final turns before the chequered flag.

"I put it into fifth instead of third gear coming out of that corner and Matt got past me - at the end of the straight I pulled in on the inside of Matt but I didn't think I had a chance until he locked it up on the dirty part of the track." said Lobb.

Current ENZED V8 Ute Series champion and series leader Lockwood spun the car leaving Lobb to reclaim the win recovering to second place with Simon Beirne in third.

For the Saturday afternoon race Lobb was on the back row of the grid as it was a reverse order start.

Gallantly he moved up through the field of 16 V8 utes into fourth place where he spent over half of the race trying to gain on the front three Simon Beirne, Mack Peach then Craig Patterson.

The gap was a little too large for Lobb to close the gap and improve his position but the 20 year old did come home over the line just behind Patterson and with a fourth placed finish was rewarded with much welcomed points.

The final race on Sunday was looking to be a nail biter with Simon Beirne and Caine Lobb lined up side by side on the front row for the start.

Beirne managed to put his car into the lead at the first corner with Lobb holding onto his start position of second place.

The remaining laps brought no change in the order of the two with Beirne winning the race and round ahead of Lobb who was happy to claim second overall and remain ahead of the fourth placed Christchurch driver in the series standings.

"The weekend was mint - the car is going home straight and we have closed the gap between us and the front - we had an awesome weekend." said Lobb.

Caine Lobb remains in third place in the series after three rounds with 361 points behind second placed Auckland driver Mack Peach on 371 and current leader Matt Lockwood 402 points.

The ENZED V8 Ute Series have an extended break until they return to the circuit.

Rounds four, five and six will be run over three successive weekends starting from the Powerbuilt International Raceway on the weekend of 6-8th March followed by Timaru International Motor Raceway then Invercargill's Teretonga Park.