Home Track Advantage Key To Regaining Lead For McLennan

This weekend at Manfeild Autocourse promises to be a very exciting one for the New Zealand Mini Challenge as Wellington driver Simon McLennan claims home track advantage over Taupo's Craig Innes.

A challenging round for McLennan at Invercargill's Teretonga Park last month let Innes slip ahead of the rookie driver in the points and snatch the lead in the series.

However, a very promising test session at the Manfeild Autocourse between meetings has McLennan looking forward to this weekend, the second to last round of this season.

"Our test day was very interesting and we had Sheldon Currington from Motorsport Developments come along and take a look."

"Some of the stuff which he came up with was mind blowing and he was so into it and so precise it made him really cool to work with - I'm very much looking forward to getting back on the track this weekend." said McLennan.

Manfeild Autocourse, approxiamately one and a half hours away is a fair distance away from Wellington but still traditionally considered a 'home track' to the drivers from the capital.

This will be the only track in this year's NZ Mini Challenge calendar where McLennan has had the opportunity to spend some time putting the race car through it's paces prior to the race weekend.

This factor and with the addition of a large group of supporters expected to attend just to cheer him on, Simon McLennan is not only looking forward to being on the pace but also having a great fun weekend full of socialising.

"I'm expecting some family from Palmerston North to come along which will be nice if they make it - there's no real excuse with me coming to their part of the country!" laughs McLennan.

"And I'm having some sponsors coming up from Wellington for the weekend so I just hope that they enjoy it just as much as I do."

"We have the KPH kids coming along too and I'll be looking forward to seeing the little guy who I met in Auckland at the start of the season - he's a remarkable guy who is only about 12, very talented and actually making a documentary about the racing." he says.

Project KPH is a programme which organises the opportunity for various children to attend race meetings around the country.

With just two rounds remaining in the season, McLennan sits behind current leader Craig Innes by 21 points.

With 75 points per race up for grabs the window of opportunity is still miles open and McLennan doesn't concern himself with the fact he was knocked back to second place by Innes at the previous round after leading since round three.

"The amount of points between us is not much and really just the difference between a good or bad race for one of us." he says.

"I'm not really stressing about the weekend or the championship - it's my first year and just to be in the position that I am in now is amazing."

"So instead of stressing I'm trying to just sit back and take it all in - we had a good start, an ok midpoint and I want to finish off the season in the best way possible - I think the only way to do that is to just enjoy it and enjoy the opportunity." he said.

This weekend begins with testing on Friday where the drivers will work on bringing their lap times down for the qualification session on Saturday morning.

The drivers will line up Saturday afternoon for the first of three races and with races two and three taking place Sunday.

The exciting conclusion to the championship will follow at the final round over the weekend of 20-22nd March at Pukekohe Park Raceway.