Joblin Intent on Serious Results

Hamilton racer Mark Joblin is hyped and ready for action leading into his second season of driving the very competitive Classic Cover Insurance Skyline 350GT.

The opening round gets underway this weekend at the historical Pukekohe Park Raceway just south of Auckland.

"We are intent on competing in all the rounds of the Championship this year trying to improve on our previous best year where we finished 4th in class. This year the classes have been revised so we are now running Class C for over two litre 2wd naturally aspirated cars." he says.

With the near new two wheel drive 3.5 litre race car underneath him for a second season and some time spent testing the car leading up to the summer's competition, Joblin expects to surpass his results of last year and increase his final placing.

Last season he was out for two of the six rounds leaving fellow historic racecar driver David Silverton to fill his shoes at both Pukekohe meetings thereby dipping out on two handfuls of valuable series points.

This year, with a couple of hurdles experienced last season out of the way, the intention is to complete all six rounds himself and make a serious, committed attempt at the 2WD-over-2000cc title.

Joblin is pleased to announce that his strong backing of sponsors and supporters have returned for this season including Classic Cover Insurance, Colourworks, Brian Tunnicliffe Nissan, Straight Cut Graphix, Ermis Sport Racing Insurance, Hairy Dog Race Cars, Ronnies Rod Shop, Apex Auto Services, Vero/Classic Cover-all Personal Insurances and Simply Sqeezed Juice.

"We had a spot spare on the car so offered it to Ronald McDonald House and they accepted." he said.

The Classic Cover Insurance Skyline 350GT is the result of hard work from Ron Koopman's Hairy Dog Race Cars and the Marlin Motorsport team comprising of Phil Norquay, Ian Howarth and Stu Lindsay who are mostly affectionately referred to as 'Dad's Army'.

Other than an off season tidy up, the race car remains mostly unchanged and still very competitive.

Marlin Motorsport have retained their close association with BNT V8s team Ballistic Motorsport and driver Simon Richards also co-hosting a team hospitality facility with them at selected rounds this season.

The car may be young in years but the driver has been around long enough to accumulate some driving hours and track experience holding a racing licence since 1967.

"With Wally Richards having a break and with Kenny Smith concentrating on Historic F5000, It looks as though I may be the oldest active driver contesting Tier One this year." says Joblin.

When not competing in the top level Motorsport New Zealand Tier One events with the Skyline, Joblin can be found spinning the ol' Formula Ford around the circuits in historic race car meetings.

Earlier this year at the end of the 2008-9 season Joblin put himself forward as a candidate and was voted into the position of President for the New Zealand Production Racing Series.

"I remain President of the NZPRS and as such I am very aware of the challenges facing all competitors in light of the present economic conditions. Although many classes of racing across the board will start with fewer entries, I am confident that as things continue to get better, this will soon be reflected in bigger fields at each race meeting." he said.

This opening round of the 2009-10 season kicks off this weekend on the 7-8th November at Pukekohe Park Raceway with round two held at Powerbuilt International Raceway, Ruapuna over the 28-29th November before restarting after Christmas mid January 2010 at Invercargill's Teretonga Park.