Lobb Fastest Again

Eighteen year old Caine Lobb had a strong start to the third round of the ENZED V8 Ute Championship at Taupo where he out qualified the rest of the field claiming provisional pole position.

Then in the Top Ten Shootout Lobb again took the fastest time by a good margin to claim maximum points for his efforts.

The top start to the weekend for Caine Lobb was then hindered in Saturday's Race One after a marker cone became stuck underneath the Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team's Commodore causing damage to the car's radiator and ending his race.

Lobb was forced to retire from a probable podium finish at the ENZED V8 Ute Championship at Taupo when the radiator abruptly lost all fluids due to the cone hitting hard up against it. The Whangarei driver picked up the cone when battling for position with another driver and trying to outbrake him entering the chicane at the end of the long main straight.

The two drivers battled hard holding on to the very last split-second ending with the stubborn pair both overshooting the turn and having to cut across the grass and narrowly escape a coming together. Lobb believes it was here that he hit the cone.

"I picked up a cone which got stuck underneath the car, knocked the radiator breaking off a small plastic fitting and I lost all the water. I started off in 15th in that race and I had got up to fifth when that happened." said Lobb.

With the series opting for marble draws to determine their grid positions, Lobb's qualification was good only for championship points. Unlucky in the draw he started two of the three races from the back of the field having to fight his way through to the front but with a reverse grid in Race Two he was able to start from the second row in third.

"In my second race I started in third and I won it and in my last race I started off in 13th and finished third. In the shootout I came in first by about 0.8 of a second so apart from the damage in the first race the weekend went really well and we got some points and moved up in the championship a bit." he said.

After suffering two DNFs in the opening two rounds in the South Island, Lobb is playing catch up in the championship standings. With a race win and a podium finish plus maximum points taken from qualifying in pole he has now moved up into fifth place with three rounds left.

Round Four will see all the teams heading back to the South where they will compete at the Powerbuilt International Raceway at Ruapuna, Christchurch at the end of this month.

All was not plain sailing for Lobb when in Friday's practice in extremely wet conditions, when returning to the pits at half speed, he left the circuit in a freak accident in the torrential conditions.

"There were rivers going across the track and I aquaplaned the car halfway down the back straight. I was just cruising along and the car just looped and I clipped Temuera Morrison before going off into the gravel trap." he said.

Ironically the gravel trap Lobb refers to is the same one where he spectacularly crashed his Formula Ford a year and a half ago. He miraculously walked away unhurt although the car was near a write off. After clipping another car in the open wheeler he did a high speed spin across the circuit and in front of a large A1GP crowd flew into the air when hitting the gravel and rolled three times before coming to rest upside down in a pile of metal and tyres.