Hamilton 400 Ends on High for Richards

A tough start to the weekend's racing for Simon Richards was never enough to dampen the spirits of the local driver as he fought through damage and debris to continue on to have one of his best race results of the season.

The Hamilton driver had looked forward to his first home race and although the action in races one and two had not panned out well for Richards and the Ballistic Motorsport team, he was thrilled to know his home town had surpassed all expectations with their first ever attempt at hosting the Australian V8 Supercars.

"The weekend was very good and all credit to the organisers. They do have a couple of things to improve on but that is to be expected in a first year." he said.

Richards did not have the smoothest start to his first time at the Hamilton 400 but his spririts were not about to be dampened.

With mishaps on the first and second turns of the opening NZV8 race, disaster hit early for Richards who found himself knocked out with a damaged radiator before completing one lap on the brand new street circuit.

The following day in race two a confused driver ahead of Richards braked hard and early causing him to miss the corner and claw back as many places as possible before the finish, finally crossing the line in 21st after starting near the rear of the 28 car field.

"He braked about 30 metres too early at turn one which left me avoiding him and going off down the end of the straight and having to turn around." he said.

Still on the back foot, the heavily challenged Hamilton driver gave it all he had for the final race three. This was probably the one occasion when the reverse grid rule employed through the championship would have come in handy.

But even without the helping hand of a reversal, Richards ran a very strong race and made his way through the large pack and up the field to just outside the ever targetted top 10.

"The weekend was a fairly hard affair for us but in the last race I started in 25th and had an excellent run to finish in 12th heading off Australian V8 Supercar driver Jack Perkins." he said.

Richards was very impressed by the quality of the event the city of Hamilton had laid on for the people of New Zealand and the Australian V8 Supercars.

He believes there will probably be some changes made to the circuit for the second time around.

"There was a nasty bump going into Ford corner which was right on a braking point but I'm sure they will iron that out for next year. It would be nice if it was smoother going in there but it did throw up the same challenge for everybody. The chicane was pretty harsh too and it claimed a few victims. The last bump in it was pretty rough going." he said.

With Richards wrapping up the weekend with that final race result just outside of the top 10, after starting from 25th, the move through the 28 strong field and his show of potential means it is looking good for the next round of the Hamilton 400.