The first of three consecutive South Island rounds of the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup took place last weekend at Christchurch’s Ruapuna Park Raceway, and for Hamilton racer Shaun Lawrence it proved to be a far greater challenge than they had anticipated.
The Liquorland Racing team struggled to find an ideal set up for the car throughout Fridays practice, and ultimately started the first race from the fourth row on the grid. Once again the close nature of the racing was the highlight and Lawrence battled hard throughout the race, ultimately bringing the car home in a hard-fought seventh place.
The Suzuki’s took to the track for race two in brilliant sunshine in a “reverse grid” format, however the race turned out to be somewhat of a panelbeaters dream as more than half the field came away with panel damage, some a lot worse than others! Caught up in the middle of it all, Lawrence unfortunately bent a steering arm after making contact with Chris Cox.
Forced to pit to make necessary repairs, the Liquorland Racing team went two laps down on the rest of the field, although did return to the track to ensure all was right for the final race of the weekend.
“I was pretty disappointed to be honest” explains Lawrence. “We went to Ruapuna really looking to cement a position at the pointy end of the Championship, but things just didn’t go our way. The crash with Chris (Cox) was pretty ugly, the car got a heap of air under it! We just had to keep pushing on and get as many points as we could salvage” he added.
Starting the final race off the back of the grid, Lawrence made a hard charge through the field, and ultimately came home in an excellent fourth position as the chequered flag dropped for the final time. The points from that race alone allows Lawrence to keep in touch with the Championship leaders, and despite dropping from second to fourth overall, is still very much in outright contention.
An added bonus for the weekend saw Lawrence, along with Chris Cox (who ironically came together in race two), have now taken over first place overall in the “Team Championship”. Fair to say then that the weekend was far from the disaster it was initially shaping up to be!
The Championship takes a short break before heading back South for Round Three in Timaru. Shaun, along with the SLR team would like to wish all their supporters a very Merry Christmas and safe New Year.
