Lobb Back For Seconds

Back to defend his championship title, Whangarei driver Caine Lobb gets back behind the wheel of the Mark Cromie Holden V8 racing ute this weekend for the first of five national rounds in the ENZED V8 Ute Racing Series.

In March earlier this year Lobb won the championship at Teretonga Park Invercargill moving up from third in the standings after storming through the last three rounds of the season by winning them all, taking nine wins from 12 races.

This year he hopes to once again clinch the title but with the addition of experienced V8 ute driver Chris Pither entering the series will have some hard races ahead.

"Chris is in it this year in the latest Ford ute and he's going to be quick so it will be an interesting season - we will do the best we can and try to win the title again." said Lobb.

Pither is from Palmerston North and has been competing in the Australian V8 Racing Ute Series for a number of seasons along with some drives in Team Kiwi Racing's Ford before the team's withdrawl from the Australian V8 Supercars Championship.

The opener held at Taupo Motorsport Park gets underway on Friday the 23rd October with practice sessions for the utes and other top competitive racing classes under the new Independent Racing Classes banner created for this season dubbed the "IRC Thunder of Summer Tour".

Racing begins on Saturday and continues through Sunday with over 200 race cars from 11 classes expected for the bumper weekend similarly dubbed "Thunder at the Lake".

The ENZED V8 Ute Series joins the IRC once again at Pukekohe over the weekend of 4-6th December for their second round before heading onto a different line up of venues and seperate calendar.

The series has round three at the brand new Hampton Downs circuit in Meremere on February 5-7 before heading down to the South Island for rounds four and five at Power Built Raceway at Ruapuna 19-21st March and Timaru International Motor Raceway 26-28th March for the final.

This weekend Lobb will also be a starter for round one of the first complete season of the new Formula Suzuki Series.

Over the winter he competed and won the winter series held at Taupo Motorsport Park after also winning the mini series prior to that.

With those events mostly heralding the arrival of the new racing series and giving the team's the opportunity to learn about the cars, it's time for Lobb to get back into the open wheel car this weekend to try and clinch the title in the first full season.

He will be running in Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team colours with their much valued support.

Lobb isn't expecting the series to be a walk in the park with ex-TKR and V8 Supercar Development series driver Gene Rollinson competing as well as five time NZ karting champion and top super karter Ryan Urban also in the mix.

The Formula Suzuki Series is run as part of the seven round IRC Thunder of Summer Tour competing at three North Island circuits Taupo Motorsport Park, Pukekohe Park Raceway and Manfeild Autocourse.

The tour begins this weekend at Taupo and concludes there in March 2010.

The next round is at Pukekohe on the 5-6th November.

Caine Lobb has been racing since a youngster touring the country in karts before moving to Formula First, Formula Ford and then the Holden Ute and Formula Suzuki.

Currently he is listed as number one in "The Future Stars" on the international Driver Database website www.driverdb.com ahead of A1GP driver Earl Bamber in fifth.

Next month he turns 21 and is looking ahead to a promising career in motorsport with he and the Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team looking at their options after completing this season's campaign in the ENZED V8 Racing Utes and Formula Suzuki.

"We're always getting emails offering Caine a drive somewhere overseas but they all cost a lot of money so will have to see what the future holds." says Lobb's manager Brian Craig.