Joblin Achieves 100 Percent Landmark

At the weekend Hamilton's Mark Joblin brought the Classic Cover Insurance Skyline 350GT home victorious for the 18th time establishing an unprecedented record for himself and the newly created race class C within the New Zealand Production Racing Series.

"We did six rounds from Pukekohe to Invercargill which included 12 practice sessions, six qualifying sessions, 18 races, several hot-lap sessions and we finished every single one giving us a 100 percent reliability record - fantastic!" said Joblin.

He shared the achievement with another Hamiltonian, Class B driver Steve Taylor who in his Honda Civic Type R also achieved the maximum of 1350 points from 6 rounds/18 races when the season concluded at Taupo Motorsport Park.

Joblin was the sole runner in Class C which rewarded him with 18 wins from as many races but he was also on track competing against other cars from the NZPRS which included various makes such as Mitsubishi Evolutions, Subaru WRXs, a Mazda 3 MPS, Honda Type R Civic and Suzuki Swift.

"We could'nt match the factory-built hot rods such as the Evos, the WRX and the Civic Type R but we carried the torch for the traditional rear-wheel-drive race cars. I dont think I could handle one of the new-fangled whizz bang 4WD turbos or FWD 'rockets. I'm an a old-fashioned guy who likes to drive yee-ha, tail-happy, slippy-slidey cars and the Nissan delivered that in spades!" said Joblin.

Right at the outset of this season Joblin was intent on achieving some serious results this time around to beat his previous best of fourth in class. With the new C class being created he ironically became the sole contender in the category but nevertheless did achieve the serious results targeted with a 100 percent perfect finishing record and a series of new lap records improving on his previous times markedly.

"We managed to coax the "Classic Cover" Nissan Skyline home in each of the 3 races to keep our 100% finishing record intact and thus successfully take the Class C NZ Production Racing Championship and we are delighted to have scored a championship win for the team." said Joblin.

Even with a guarantee on achieving a class win at each round, Joblin was not content to circulate for easy victories and sought to gain sizeable improvements in his driving while the team worked on developing the Skyline to glean whatever speed was left in it... out of it.

At the previous round held at Manfeild Autocourse Joblin set new lap records in all three of his races testament to his ambition to improve his game for seasons yet to come. At Taupo Motorsport Park at the weekend he was lapping over two seconds faster than last season and set new lap records in two of the three races held there.

"We qualified in a good time on Sat morning then beat that time in Race 1 to set a new Class lap record then we managed to beat that time again in Race 2 Sunday to establish a new lap record. The final race was a bit more challenging with lots of dust and debris on the track, so we just could not quite go quicker again to set a new record."

"Full Credit has to go to Ron Koopman of Hairy Dog Race Cars and our loyal crew of Phil Norquay, Ian Howarth and when he could help out, Stu Lindsay. This bunch of enthusiastic mates took a well-used 75000km Japanese import and created a championship-winning race car." he said.

The Marlin Motorsport crew always look after their supporters and the hospitality marquee was again in action over the weekend shared with BNTV8s teams Ballistic Motorsport and Concept Motorsport who are running Ford and Holden race cars respectively.

The guests were treated to great food and refreshments all the while offered the best view of the entire Taupo circuit plus TV coverage and a direct feed from the results office.

"We had excellent feedback from our broker & Vero hospitallity guests for the weekend who enjoyed a great view of the on-track action from our hospitality marquee at the end of the main straight. We were particularly pleased to host Graeme and Yvonne Squire From Dulux Powder & Industrial Coatings who are joining the Team as sponsors of the 4 hour Endurance race at Hampton Downs in June." said Joblin.

The New Zealand Production Racing Series grid numbers were smaller than usual this season due to the economic situation. However, with strong signs of improvement in the economy the NZPRS expects a resurgence back to a healthy sized field of production based race cars for when they get underway again for a new season starting near the end of 2010.

To cap off a successful weekend and season Gold Coast based driver Craig Baird who has had some personal sponsorship from Classic Cover Insurance managed the double by winning both the BNTV8s and the Porsche GT3 Cup Championships. Also, young driver Martin Short who carried the Classic Cover Insurance signage on his car won the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship.

www.marlinmotorsport.co.nz

Mark Joblin in the Classic Cover Insurance Skyline 350GT at Taupo Motorsport Park

Photos Little Devil Motorsport