After what seems an eternity for Hamilton’s Shaun Lawrence, the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup is set and ready to go as the 2010/11 Championship gets underway this coming weekend. With a full field of Swifts set to take to the world’s Southern-most race track at Teretonga, Invercargill, for Lawrence it’s been a frantic Christmas break.
In yet another first for the class, Saturday’s race has become something of an enduro as the field face a first-up 30 lap feature, which also includes a compulsory wheel change for he pit crew. This in itself could well prove to be race-changing as either a fast change, or a slow one, will see the running order re-shuffled.
While a motivated Lawrence has worked hard training in the intense summer heat, the Liquorland Racing team is confident that the extra fitness may well prove beneficial come race day.
“With the enduro in particular, it’s going to be as much about having the
fitness to stay focused the entire race distance, as it is about having
outright speed”, Lawrence explains. “We normally do 12-14 laps and on a hot day
even that’s hard work, but to have a 30 lap race straight off the cuff will be
interesting to say the least!” he added.
Even with the experience gained from competing at the Teretonga circuit last season, Lawrence maintains that it’s difficult to get the car set up dead right as the weather can be extremely changeable. Irrespective, the team are promising to put on a show and are confident of continuing the recent good form shown prior to the Christmas break.
There is race coverage on TV3 on Sunday afternoon (January 16) and the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup then heads to Timaru’s “Levels Raceway” just a week later for the fourth round of the Championship.
