No Turning Back After The Bug Bites

Reflecting back on last weekend's Hamilton 400, Wellington driver Marty Hunter is beginning to realise what a great opportunity he was given when entering himself and the TypeFace-MoneyWorks Mini Cooper S into the NZ Mini Challenge round within the international V8 Supercar event.

The event, which saw 172,000 people attend over the three days, strengthened Hunt's growing addiction to racing and has now led to himself and car co-owner Brent Melhop having no choice but to campaign as many rounds in the Mini as possible in the upcoming 2008/9 season.

"Many a New Zealand driver would sell their own mother for a drive at an event of that magnitude. Brent and I thought about moving on to some other racing which would have been a bit easier for us to afford. But after Hamilton and the past season in the NZ Mini Challenge we knew we would not be able to match the experience with anything else." he said.

After two rounds under his belt, one round of the national championship at Manfeild Autocourse and now the highlight of his year the Hamilton 400, Marty Hunt is gaining experience and along with that some extra confidence. That confidence is what he hopes to carry through with him into next season when he will be sharing the car with Brent Melhop another driver from Wellington who he co-owns the Mini with.

The Mini Cooper S was purchased to campaign last season's NZ Mini Challenge and rounds shared between four Wellington drivers with Hunt hopping aboard twice for his rookie season and otherwise helping out on the spanners. This upcoming season Hunt expects to race the Pukekohe, Hampton Downs, Manfeild and Timaru rounds with Brent doing all the rest - Invercargill, Ruapuna, Taupo and Hamilton if the Minis are able to return in 2009.

Leading up to the season which begins in November, Hunt will be taking the car to Manfeild for racing in their winter series which means going head to head with various cars with mixed performance instead of other Mini Challenge cars with restrictions and exactly matched `performance.

As for last weekend's Hamilton 400, the experience is still sinking in with Marty Hunt who says when racing he just switches off to all else around him.

"I seem to drive completely differently when I am racing compared to when I am in a practice session or qualifying. When I am racing I don't notice anything else, I am so wired on the cars in front of me I don't worry about the walls because I am so focused on racing." he said.

The Mini Challenge drivers were given two races over the weekend they shared with the Australian V8 Supercars, NZV8s, Porshe GT3 and Toyota Racing Series.

They were only given one 20 minute session to practice before another session to qualify and determine their starting order for the two races. Thinking to learn the new circuit quickly he stayed close to the experienced and talented Rhys McKay hoping to find a good line around the street circuit in the short time available in the practice session where the surface was still wet after some rainfall that morning.

"That session was kind of hairy for me driving around a new street course in slicks on a wet track! I was following Rhys and when he reached turn five his car hit one of the puddles and he aquaplaned the car into the wall. So I thought "better not follow that line", if it could happen to him it could happen to any of us." laughed Hunt.

Starting Saturday's race one from 12th place, rookie driver Hunt began to make some ground finishing in seventh place after some cars had fallen by the wayside and others been passed by the Wellington driver.
"There were a few cars that were helping me get up from my starting place of 12th, I passed two or three cars as well as the retirements and was over the moon with that and really felt like I was having a race and not just following the others." he said.

The next and final race for the weekend was Sunday morning with Hunt being given plenty of advice from others about how to drive the circuit and was to regret some decisions made before and during race two.
Midway through the race Hunt had a go at Rhys McKay at turn one only to get past him but in doing so took out David Grigor who was in front of McKay. The move ended the race for both Grigor and Hunt.

"I had some advice overnight but later regretted not following my own gameplan but that is something I will just put down to experience now. Now that I have had a DNF and next time will drive my own race rather than someone elses." he said.

"It was a hugh thrill knowing that I had got past Rhys under brakes but hadn't actually seen that the guy in front of him had gone to take his rightful line for the corner. I felt bad about it because I finished David's race where he had actually done nothing wrong. I guess that's just part and parcel of racing and it could have happened to me and I just have to put it down to experience and take it with me to next year's racing." he said.

"The main thing we took from the weekend was a whole pile of experience to go into next year with. I can't thank Brent Melhop enough, without all of his hugh support of me I would never have been able to experience any of all this." said Hunt.