4th February 2012: NZ Superstock Team Champs

Photo: MIkey B

So after a long flight to the other side of the world we safely landed in Auckland. We drove to Rotorua where we stayed for just one night. The following evening we set off for Palmerston, driving through the night and reaching our destination at 3.30am. Thankfully the apartment was ready for us with enough beds for the family and crew.

Friday morning and everyone’s up early. We go to Scottie’s to work on the cars then in the afternoon drive to a local track called Harrisville. Peter Rees has kindly supplied us with a mini-stock for Phoebe, Frankie JJ & Max Hertzog to have a blast round in. This isn’t the car they will be using for their race in 2 weeks time, even so, we appreciated the opportunity for a drive. All 3 went very well and took some catching!

Phoebe tries out the mini-stock

Friday evening we all went out for a meal at Breakers, a good feed and a few games of pool before leaving for an early night ready for the long day tomorrow.

Another early start for everyone on Saturday morning. Once more we drive to Scottie’s where Team GB keep the cars. The cars are prepped and bodies filled ready for this evenings events! Again, Vicki Myers puts on a fantastic feast, feeding every man and his dog before we leave for scrutineering. This takes place in the town centre where the atmosphere is already buzzing. Once all the cars have been checked over we leave for the track, just a few minutes drive away.

Frankie takes his car for scrutineering (Photo: Daniel Neville)

The lions prepare to roar (Photo: Daniel Neville)

Frankie on the parade lap (Photo: Shawn Cooper)

The meeting soon gets underway. The first team we’re up against is Hawkes Bay. It was quite a tough race and Team GB suffered a lot of damage. Frankie did his clutch but still finished, and Danny went on to win! So the Wainman brothers come good and drove hard to win.

Back in the pits and the clutch damage to Frankie’s car was going to take longer to fix than we had time for. After a quick discussion Daniel offered the use of his car to Frankie. This time we were up against the best! The Panthers…

The race got underway and it was full on from the word go! Frankie got Peter Rees a pearler! Rolling him over only for Pete to land back on all 4 wheels and carry on in the race, Frankie however retired with damage. Tom Harris walled up Joblin but despite their efforts Team BG lost.

Still our best chance now was a 3rd place, can we achieve this tomorrow? YES WE CAN!

First we were up against Christchurch. A cracking race for Team GB who did all the Poms proud by romping home in 1st-2nd-3rd & 4th place, making the Christchurch team look like amateurs!

This took us through to the last round and we were to be up against Rotorua Rebels. Another fab race. At the start The Rebels looked to have the upper hand, Frankie had retired to the infield and Tom had suffered front end damage to the tank making it very difficult to steer. Before we knew it things came good and Tom managed to wall up Mark Osbourne . Damn good race and briiliant result!