McLennan Ready To Give All

The weekend at Manfeild Autocourse in Feilding was looking good for Simon McLennan and the M2 Motorsport team when they set times in practice up to 0.4 of a second faster than the other New Zealand Mini Challenge contenders.

Some intensive and rewarding test sessions at the Wellington team's home circuit prior to the race weekend had McLennan optimistic of closing the gap between himself and championship leader Taupo's Craig Innes.

However, when rain hit on Saturday morning McLennan found himself on the backfoot when the wet track closed down the gap in lap times between the field and with no previous wet setup data for the circuit was only able to set the third fastest time in the qualification session.

"Friday was a good indication of how fast we were - but it went and rained over night and come to qualifying we just didn't have the set up for it - we were concentrating on the raw speed of the car in testing and we just didn' t have the information for a good wet set up." he said.

Innes claimed pole position with Palmerston North's Ryan Bailey setting the second fastest time in the wet session.

"Putting things into perspective Craig has already done a season and Ryan had no ballast so third fastest wasn't so bad considering the conditions." said McLennan

As championship leaders both Innes and McLennan carry 50kgs of penalty ballast to even the field and promote close racing.

Saturday afternoon's race one was started on a wet circuit and Taupo's Craig Innes grabbed hold of the lead ahead of Bailey and McLennan.

Unfortunately McLennan was still a little off the pace with a gap opening between himself and the pair.

Innes held the lead until missing a gear at the hairpin resulting in contact between himself and Bailey and a change of race leader.

The race finished Bailey first, Innes second with McLennan in third.

On Sunday morning it was Simon McLennan's turn to chase down Innes who once again captured the lead from the start line.

"I had to get around Joel Thrupp which I managed to do around the outside of turn one which was awesome - I caught up to Craig and had a half dive at him at the hairpin which didn't work - it slowed me down a lot letting Joel ahead of me again." he said.

McLennan had another shot at Thrupp around the outside of turn one but contact between the two ended with the Wellington driver fully sideways losing not only second place to Thrupp but Ryan Bailey moved ahead also leaving him with fourth which is where he finished.

"Unfortunately the contact altered the rear wheel adjustment and there weren't enough laps to make up any places." he said.

The conditions were dry for the final race of the weekend on Sunday afternoon.

"It was looking quite sweet there for a while, we knew we had a good fast car and we had been waiting for dry conditions all weekend."

"Ryan (Bailey) and Craig (Innes) got around me at the start and throughout the race I just picked off cars one by one - once I got past Craig there was quite a large gap between me and Ryan." said McLennan.

The word came from the pitwall that McLennan was between 0.3 and 0.4 of a second faster than Bailey so the 21 year old driver put his head down and closed the gap lap by lap.

"Eventually I caught up to him and the plan was to put some pressure on him but not to do anything stupid because we needed the points - going into turn one I knew I was good under brakes there and made a move on him but I went to change gear and the pedal just went straight to the floor." said McLennan.

McLennan was unable to continue with no drive at all in the race car.

"I was gutted not only for the championship but for the team who had worked so hard in getting me a fast car and also for all my friends family and sponsors who had come along to cheer me on."

"It was such a shame that we couldn't finish off the weekend with a win but we know we have a good fast car and people need to realise that we had a 50kg weight ballast and were still faster than Ryan who was carrying no ballast."

With the final round coming up in just over a week McLennan looks forward to enjoying a race weekend where he intends to give it everything he has got.

"I've gained a lot of confidence in the last month or so with the testing at Manfeild and the development of the car - I would expect us to be fast again like at Manfeild."

"We know we have the car speed now and there's no reason why we can't be on the podium at Pukekohe and this will be the first track this season that I have already raced on so I won't need to learn the track and come Friday morning I will be straight into it." he said.

The gap in the championship has now increased between himself and leading driver Craig innes to 116 points.

But with 75 available per each of the three remaining races there is still an outside chance of McLennan closing that gap and perhaps even becoming victorious in this his rookie season.

"I'm still in second with a good gap back to Gavin Yortt and still in the back of my mind there is a chance to win the championship... but it's going to be very hard now although we know we have a fast car."

"I'm there to go all out now that's all I can do - it's going to be a weekend when we go for everything." he says.

The final round of the New Zealand Mini Challenge takes place at Pukekohe Park Raceway over the weekend of 20-22nd March 2009.