Ross Bounces Back Hard

Cambridge driver Nick Ross has had his fair share of misfortune so far this season but in round three of the BNT V8s at Powerbuilt Raceway in Ruapuna this weekend it proved to be somewhat of a turn around for him and the Concept Motorsport team.

After being caught up in the horrendous pile up at Pukekohe Park Raceway at the start of November the team had to return to their older Holden Commodore chassis for this vital pre-Christmas round.

Ross and the team took the race car to Ruapuna and after a couple of hitches in both qualification and race one managed to bounce back and end the meeting on a high with a seventh place in the final race of the weekend.

Setting his best qual time in the first of the three sessions, "We got on the case quite quickly in qualifying although we're not too sure what happened in the second session after putting on new tyres.", leaving the Cambridge driver with 19th place on the grid.

Starting in 19th place Ross started to move up the field well but a power steering failure played a major part in his final placing after being directed to the pits for a mechanical infringement.

"I was up to 12th place at one stage there, I lost power steering after about four laps and did six laps or so without it but we had to come into the pits to get the car looked over by the team."

After the trip to the pit lane Ross crossed the finish line in 20th place.

Adding to the woes of the weekend's first race, on the final lap the engine was damaged which the team believe was due to something being picked up from the track and getting caught in the crank pulley.

The professional Concept Motorsport team had the spare engine in the car that night and the Total Lubricants Commodore ready for action for race two on Sunday morning.

Based on his finishing place in race one Ross started the morning's race two in 20th and made his way up to finish in 16th position.

For the reverse grid race on Sunday afternoon Nick Ross started fifth on the grid and maintained that position well eventually dropping just two places finishing in seventh.

"Overall the weekend was the best so far this season and we were pretty happy with it."

"We brought the car home in one piece with minimal damage and that's always a good thing." he said.

After the major damage caused at the pile up at Pukekohe in round two early in November, the newer of the team's chassis has been put aside to be rebuilt as the season continues with the team deciding to contest the remainder of the season with the older body.

"After the weekend we have moved from 23rd in the championship up to 18th, we now plan to get in some testing to get some more speed out of the older chassis before we head to the South Island in January next year."

After the Christmas break the BNT V8s will head back down south for round four at Timaru International Raceway on the 9-11th January 2009 followed by round five at Invercargill's Teretonga Park on the 16-18th the very next weekend.