McLennan vs the Champ

This weekend sees the fourth round of the New Zealand Mini Challenge as the competitors head for the South Island and the Timaru International Raceway with the first of back to back meetings in the south.

Rookie driver Simon McLennan enters the midway point of the seven round season as the championship leader after a resounding victory at the previous round at Ruapuna.

But this weekend the driver from Wellington will go head to head against last year's champion Brent Collins who has re-entered the series for this round after the battle has arrived on his back door step taking place at his home circuit in Timaru.

"It will be great to have Brent Collins there, it's another car for the championship, he's last year's champion and a very good driver." said McLennan.

"With people like Brent racing there is an opportunity for me to learn from them, I think it can only make me stronger and I hope to be able to learn something from him."

McLennan returns to the South Island after his round win at Ruapuna in November looking to hold onto the championship lead against his nearest competitor Craig Innes 54 points behind him.

Having never been to the tricky twisty Levels circuit at Timaru he remains confident in his ability to do well but not willing to predict the outcome against Innes, Collins, hard charging southern lad Gary Johnstone or any other drivers within the series.

"We had such a good weekend at Ruapuna and going into the unknown again it's hard to expect to have the same weekend to happen because we are starting on the back foot again." said McLennan.

"You never know what will happen, I wouldnt like to say - it could rain, you could be the fastest driver all day Friday and completely cock it up in qualification Saturday!" he said.

But the name of the game for McLennan and the team is to learn what they can in practice and get the car as close to pole as possible to get them in a good position for the three races of the weekend.

"I haven't been to Timaru before so we can't be sure of what to expect, we hope to get some good runs on Friday and get it nicely set up before qualification on Saturday."

Because the cars are so evenly matched we have found you need to be up there to have a good weekend so qualifying well will be our first goal of the weekend." said McLennan.

As in all motorsport championships the key to staying near the top of the ladder is consistency and McLennan has finished well in all races although there have been many drivers taking race wins so far this season.

"Different drivers have been fast at different tracks and we have accumulated points rather than been hot and cold, we are trying to look at the big picture rather than going for the big dive for first place."

"We plan to just keep trucking along with our championship." he says.

Simon McLennan and the M2 Motorsport team have once again called upon the expert services of Richard Knowles and DCH Motorsport from Christchurch who also look after Gary Johnstone.

"I'm really happy to be back with DCH again after Ruapuna because we had such a good run with them there and it's good to be going to Timaru with the same team behind us."

"They know how to set up the car and Richard will be on the radio again to keep me in check."

This weekend kicks off on Friday the 9th January with two practice sessions followed by qualification on Saturday morning.

The first of three races will be held Saturday afternoon with race two Sunday morning and a reverse grid race in the afternoon.

The second of back to back race meetings takes place at Invercargill's Teretonga Park over the weekend of 16-18th January where the NZ Mini Challenge competitors and the other Tier One classes again compete before heading back to the North Island for round six in February.