Caine Lobb To Reignite The Fire

Caine Lobb is more than ready to reignite the flames as he waits in much anticipation for this weekend's opening round of the ENZED V8 Ute Series 2008-9 season.

The fire burning inside of Lobb was unleashed last season where as a rookie driver he managed to pick up a podium placing in every race he finished but one in his first season.

This weekend will be something of a return to his roots when the V8 utes hit the Manfeild circuit in Feilding where Lobb cut his teeth competing and winning winter series championships in both Formula First and Formula Fords before moving to the Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team earlier this year.

"The circuit is one of those where you can go really well or you can just not do well at all, we will just have to wait and see but I can't wait to get back into it." said Lobb from his hotel at Rotorua.

Caine Lobb and team principal Mark Cromie are currently on a stop off in Rotorua before heading to Manfeild Autocourse for the weekend's racing taking place over the 21-23rd November.

"Mark and I are taking the opportunity to show the car to some other dealers from the Holden group that are currently here in Rotorua before heading to Feilding for the meeting." he said.

Although Lobb put in a stunning display of speed and race craft throughout his first season in the race car, a series of dnfs (did not finish) plagued his progress in the championship standings.

Battling throughout the six round season with leaders Matthew Lockwood and Simon Beirne earlier in the year, Lobb eventually finished in fourth place just one point behind Mack Peach with Lockwood claiming the title ahead of Beirne at the final round in June.

At this stage it seems as though the battles of that season will be rekindled this weekend with the same fast drivers coming back for more in the new season which stretches through to May 2009.

"I will be fighting it out with Matthew and Simon again by the looks of it and of course Mack Peach who will be quick again this season." he said.

As in the NZV8s and recently big news in the Australian V8 Supercars, parity between the Holdens and Fords has been brought into question for the ENZED V8 Ute Series.

In an effort to discover and alleviate any imbalance before the season's start the Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team ute and Ford ute of Mack Peach will be taken through their paces by an unbiased professional driver this week at Taupo Motorsport Park.

The impartial driver will run a test on both cars to judge on whether there is a major difference between the Holden and Ford race utes.

The cars are strictly controlled for performance parity and the two utes are to be track tested and then run on a dyno to check the power output from the two engines in a move to check for any advantage that could be detrimental to maintaining close competition in the series.

Although Caine Lobb is mostly only interested in getting back into the cockpit of the Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team NZV8UR, he will be celebrating his 20th birthday this Saturday.

After getting started in karts at the local Whangarei track in 1996, Caine Lobb could now be considered a veteran driver with a 12 year career in motorsport but unlike most veterans has many years of competition to come.

After Manfeild this weekend the season will continue with round two in a couple of weeks at the historic Pukekohe Park Raceway south of Auckland before taking a break over the Christmas season.

Returning with some extravagance, the third round will be held as part of the A1GP event at Taupo Motorsport Park on the 23-25th January 2009.

From there the Holden and Ford battle will head to the South Island for three rounds at Powerbuilt Raceway Ruapuna, Timaru International Motor Raceway and Teretonga Park Raceway all held in March.

At this stage the seventh round held over the 1-3rd May 2009 is expected to be a return to Pukekohe Park Raceway after the brand new Hampton Downs Motorsport Park fell victim to bad weather which delayed the completion of the world class circuit in time for the finale.