North Shore’s Grant Liston has come away from rounds three and four of the Production Racing Series having maintained his strong lead at the head of the championship.
Over the weekend of 14-16 January, Liston took to Teretonga in the Avis North Shore Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. The first race was a 30-lap mini endurance race and after qualifying third, he moved up to second early on. After the compulsory pit-stop and with 10 laps remaining, Liston started to close the gap and by the race end it was a mere 1.5 seconds.
Race two saw Liston make the best of the start and take the lead until lap five, when the similar car of Logan Childs went to the inside and made contact with Liston. After correcting the initial slide, Liston was bumped again, this time spinning off onto the grass, dropping him to fifth. With a mixture of determination and small mistakes by his rivals, he was able to regain second place.
The third and final reverse grid race started in damp conditions and Liston was boxed in at the start and then the drizzle turned to full on rain. Liston worked his way up to fourth, holding off race long pressure from car owner Grant Aitken in his Ford Focus RS, until the last lap when a missed gear to let Aitken slip by. The fifth place finish meant that Liston finished the round in second.
The following weekend,(at yet another track he had never race on) Liston headed to Timaru to defend his championship lead. The weekend didn’t start well when he parked his car in the gravel trap in the first practice session. The second session went better when Liston was second fastest, although he could only manage fourth in qualifying. Race one saw him move up one place after a ding-dong battle with the Audi S3 of Simon Sceats.
Race two provided major drama when Liston moved to the inside of Kevin Varney’s Subaru down the back straight on lap one. In fifth gear, Liston was crowded onto the grass, resulting in both cars, in Liston’s words, ‘Spinning like tops’. Caught up in the drama was Richard Bagnall’s Mini which summersaulted off the track, causing a red flag. Liston restarted in third place, however contact between the two leaders meant Logan Childs was issued a drive-through penalty, leaving Liston to pass Sceats and clear out for a comfortable victory.
The third and final race, again reverse grid, saw Liston take a conservative approach in the already battle-scarred Avis North Shore Evo 9, taking third place and with it the round win, his third from the four rounds of the season.
Liston currently holds a 142 point lead with two rounds remaining, and a 213 point lead in Class D for four-wheel drive cars over Logan Childs.
