More Than I Expected Says McLennan

Following his first round ever in the New Zealand Mini Challenge Wellington driver Simon McLennan is completely hyped over the weekend's racing and the rounds yet to come.

The 21 year old karter come touring car driver learned much over the weekend and although not everything went his way throughout the three day event he picked up three good results including a podium third place in a very wet race two.

After setting the fourth fastest time in Saturday morning's qualification session the weekend was off to a good start and looking to be a scorcher for McLennan as he and the rest of the mini field lined up for the opening race of the season.

Getting away well the entire pack entered the first corner seemingly as one and as the field battled their way out of turn one and towards two the tough series claimed it's first two victims of the seasaon.

McLennan fighting to hold his hard earned position clipped another driver beside him as the track in front of him ran out leaving him with no place to go.

Luckily he was able to carry on undamaged where he battled it out through the race with two Christchurch drivers Wayne Timms and Barry Calder.

Eventually settling down in between the two the Wellingtonian brought the car home in fifth, a good effort in a new car and for him a new racing series.

On Sunday morning the weather broke and the day was declared wet by the race officials.

By regulation the mini drivers were to replace their racing rubber for wet tyres not only for racing speed but more importantly safety as the track was covered in water.

In the morning's race two the sun didn't shine but McLennan certainly did as he called on all of his wet weather skills from his years of karting and brought the car home clean and unscratched with a very creditable third place behind winner Craig Innes and Justin Herbert.

"It was very slippery out there but I am so used to driving karts in the rain where there is absolutley no grip that when I drove the mini on the wet tyres it was like 'this is great!'. There is actually some grip on the wet track in the mini and I seemed to go pretty well." said McLennan.

For the final race in the afternoon the track was drying out and after a last minute call from the officials removing the wet tyre enforcement the Mini teams were frantically changing wheels before being called to the circuit.

McLennan started from sixth in a reverse grid line up and into the first corner was all the way up to third when Wayne Timms went off leaving the rookie in second place behind a rampaging Justin Herbert.

All was looking good as the pair entered the sweeper before the main straight with McLennan now looking at taking a shot at getting his first leading lap in the series.

"I was right up behind Maddren and he took the low line of the corner so I took the high line. Unfortunately up there it was still damp and the car just snapped out from under me and that was that." said McLennan.

With hopes of a maiden win all but a flickering memory McLennan was back to sixth and charging hard to catch Barry Calder who was a good ten car lengths ahead.

Reeling him in quickly he was soon past and expecting to pull away just as quickly but Calder held on well.

"I thought I would have pulled away quickly but he stuck right behind me. I spoke to him later and he said he was following my lines around the circuit and picked up some extra speed." laughed McLennan.

Finishing the final race in fifth the rookie from Wellington finished up his first round of the NZ Mini Challenge with a fourth overall after three races and eager for the second round to come.

"I'm really excited to get to Pukekohe now. After the weekend I found that it has been even more than I thought it was going to be. Everything from the racing, to meeting the other drivers and teams, to dealing with the kids from Project KPH to the attention from the media it was all quite overwhelming!" said an enthusiastic Simon McLennan.

"The media attention was great. At times I would be just chilling out and having some time to myself and I would look over and there would be a camera trained on me. It was quite exciting and just part of the deal with racing in this series - I don't mind it at all." he says.

M2 Motorsport and Simon would like to thank New World Metro Willis St, Project KPH, Dzine Signs, and Carlton party hire for their support.

Next up is round two of seven held at Pukekohe Park Raceway on the 7-9th November 2008.