Tough Breaks but Orr Gains Momentum

Mechanical woes hindered Whakatane driver Christina Orr at the opening round of the BNT V8s at Pukekohe Park Raceway when in Friday's shakedown her engine blew just three laps into the session.

The setback set the scene for a trying weekend but Orr was able to progress up the field, score points and get time in the seat of the Holden Commodore which will aid her campaign for a strong second season in the series.

Installing a spare engine into the car had the sole female driver in the BNT V8s back on track in time to tackle the nation's toughest opponents in the top level category of New Zealand motorsport.

Unfortunately the spare engine was down on horsepower from the team's number one powerplant which left Orr fighting to keep pace with the front runners.

But after qualifying in just 20th place in Saturday's session Orr made some progress through the field in Sunday's three races taking 17th, 16th and then 15th.

"A cam pin came loose and basically took out everything inside the engine, we were ready to pack up and go home when we were offered somebody elses spare."

"We didn't think much of it (being down on power) in practice when we weren't really going up against anyone but when we got to qualifying I started to think I didn't have what they had. Then in race one at the start all the others just pulled away from me and by the time we were going down the back straight the others had six lengths on me." Orr said.

Basically a character building weekend so far Orr then narrowly escaped a major involvement in an incident at turn one of the start of race two. However with some contact made Orr was left with bent steering which led to a handling issue putting her on the back foot for the last race of the weekend.

"In the final race I had a flat spotted tyre on one side, bent steering and a car down on horsepower. It was a bit like I was the tortoise waiting for some of the hares to drop off and some did." she said.

Christina orr plans to contest just the North Island circuits this season which means a break until February 12-13th where the BNT V8s compete after touring the South Island.