REID WINS IN CARNAGE FILLED TIMARU

International Motorsport team driver Jonny Reid won’t take his eye off the championship until it’s over and this was evident during the weekend at Round Four of the New Zealand Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge at Timaru.

Driving his Rayglass / Giltrap Group GT3, Reid was initially quickest in practice on Friday although only managed to qualify third for the start of Race 1 on Saturday. Reid pressed hard to close the gap between him and Daniel Gaunt for the lead in the series in Race 1, however Gaunt had another trouble-free run and managed to keep his nose in front of the blue 997. “I got an excellent start and immediately closed in on Daniel (Gaunt). I spent the race trying not to hit him, my car was excellent through the corners and carried the speed well, but he had the edge on the straights” said Reid. “Daniel would open up the gap on the straights by about one or two car lengths, but I’d close right up on the corners. I tried a cheeky move on the last lap, but the gap wasn’t big enough for me to get through.”

Race 2 was a different story with Reid getting a good start off the second row to immediately close the gap between him and Gaunt, who was focusing on trying to chase down Baird, however Reid got a bit too close on lap 6, tagging the rear of Gaunt’s car and puncturing the radiator of the Rayglass GT3 putting Reid out of the race.

The misjudgement in Race 2 put Reid on the back of the grid for the last race of the weekend, however this arguably played into his hands when Baird and Gaunt came together with Shane McKillen on the opening lap, putting all three cars out of the race. Following a safety car restart, Reid then concentrated on making his way through the field. Team mate Mitchell Cunningham also had problems, making contact with Scott Harrison. Avoiding the two cars, Reid rode the kerb damaging the front splitter of his GT3, this effected the stability and high-speed handling of his car, but he managed to keep the pressure on Harrison who was at that point leading the race. Keeping the heat on Harrison, Reid forced him to make a mistake and snuck through to take the win.

Round 5 is in three weekends time at Manfield on 11-13 February 2011 2010/11