The penultimate round of the 2011/12 Suzuki Swift Sport Cup proved to be one of the most difficult of the season for Hamilton based driver Shaun Lawrence and the Liquorland Racing team.
Starting the Manfield round in second position overall, Lawrence was looking to capitalise on any opportunity to bridge the gap to Championship points leader AJ Lauder. The team took a gamble on car set up for qualifying, unfortunately it was a gamble that simply didn’t pay off. Starting race one from eighth position was always going to be a challenge, but in one of the most closely fought races of the series thus far, Lawrence pulled out all stops to come home a hard fought and well deserved third place
“What an awesome race!” explained Lawrence shortly after. “It was nose-to-tail, there were cars firing off (the track) everywhere, so I just decided to go for broke. The car doesn’t quite feel 100% but I’m absolutely stoked with that one” he added.
As the lights went green to signal the start of the reverse grid Race Two, Lawrence (now starting from the rear of the pack) was all set for another charge when the Suzuki’s gearbox started to fail. Despite pulling out all stops, a disappointed Lawrence could do little more than circulate and collect as many points as possible.
The service crew once again set to work on the car between races, and by the time it cane to line up for the third and final race of the weekend, the Liquorland Suzuki was now sporting a complete new gearbox and the decision was made to simple “go for broke”.
It was mid way through the final race that Lawrence found him self battling (literally) with stand-in driver Hamish Cross. As the pair headed onto the home straight, Cross found himself heading full speed into the pit wall, and Lawrence off onto the infield. Whilst Lawrence came away virtually unscathed, the now significantly shorter Suzuki of Cross was a near wreck.
Once again, Lawrence found himself simply looking to pick up as many points as he could muster as a result of the incident. After commenting all season that the car felt down on power, the team have now found the cause of the problem. It’s a rejuvenated and motivated Liquorland Racing team that heads to Taupo for an all out assault for the final round of the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup.
