Pukekohe teen motor racing driver Liam Lawson made a promising start to his South Island racing campaign only to be sidelined by an unexpected engine failure during the first race.
Lawson surprised the 20-plus field of experienced drivers by easily qualifying on pole and was well in the lead of his first race when disaster struck.
“I’m so gutted that our first South Island meeting ended like this but I’ve got to be happy that we were fast right out of the box and that gives me confidence going into the next round, which will be our first New Zealand championship meeting,” said Lawson.
Right from the outset of practice on Friday Lawson was on top of the timesheets and in the qualifying session the next day was 0.6-seconds faster than his opposition, a big margin in Formula Ford racing.
From the start of the first race Lawson took control and was stretching out his lead when the engine lost power on the third lap. He immediately shut the engine down and avoided major damage.
“I’d rather have been racing on Sunday but instead we spent the day taking the engine out and driving back home to get it fixed,” he said.
There is now a race against the clock to repair the engine, return to Christchurch and refit it before the opening round of the New Zealand championship series at Timaru on November 12.
In the meantime Liam will be out around Pukekohe raising money through his Supporters Club to help with his campaign.
Seasoned motor racing observers in the South Island were impressed with his speed and ability to quickly learn a new motor racing circuit, and are looking forward to his return.
The Pukekohe rookie has never raced on the southern tracks before.
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