Damage dashes Gooch’s NZ double hopes

Brenden Gooch in action at the Eastland Group Raceway in Gisborne. Picture by Liam Clayton

A BROKEN axle in one race and a broken CV joint in another cost Gisborne’s 1NZ Brenden Gooch any chance of doing the double in an action-packed New Zealand Streetstock Grand Prix at the weekend.

Gooch, who won the New Zealand Streetstock Championship in Invercargill the weekend before, finished 15th in the no-holds-barred NZ Grand Prix final held at Woodford Glen Speedway at Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch.

He made it through qualifying on Friday night with two fourths and a second in his three races to qualify second from the 52 cars for the 26-car final.

“In the first heat of the final on Saturday night, another car hit one of my back wheels and forced me into the infield,” Gooch said.

“There were concrete judder bars on the infield and as I went over them I heard the axle go.

“That was race over for me in terms of a high placing. I managed to finish but that was all, and I finished 20th.”

Gooch and his team were able to replace the broken axle before the second race.

“I got up to second place and then got put into the wall by a South Island car and finished fourth.”

The third race was another tough one.

“I was a bit of a target with that 1NZ number on the car and got hit again. That time I blew the inner rear CV joint and had to pull into the infield.”

Gooch said he was a bit disappointed not to have been able to do the double — the New Zealand and New Zealand GP titles.

“But it felt good to drive round that track with 1NZ on the car. I am 100 percent satisfied with how our South Island adventure went and with what I was able to achieve.”

Gooch plans to be in action again at the next meeting on the Gisborne Speedway Club programme this season — the streetstock champion of champions on February 10 at Eastland Group Raceway.

“We are working on a good turnout of out-of-town cars to boost our numbers and make it a bigger and better event.”