MOTORSPORT - Lobb records three third placings

A week after his victorious debut in the second round of the MTA Formula Ford NZ Championship at Ruapuna, Whangarei's Caine Lobb was back behind the wheel at the Pukekohe circuit south of Auckland.
Eighteen-year-old Lobb was driving his Formula First car for the third round of the Formula First National Championship.
This year he aims to win the title after finishing fifth last year in his rookie season and then going on to win the Formula First Winter Series in the off season.
After three rounds of the championship Lobb has failed to win a race, but has managed to finish all races and keep at the pointy end of the field.
His consistent results, including three third places at the weekend, see the young driver in third place in the championship with five rounds remaining.
But Lobb feels winning races in the future is going to be difficult as one driver seems to be holding all the cards at the moment.
"It's Selby Allison and then a race for everybody else - nobody can touch Selby," he said.
Lobb believes there is a power difference between his car and the leading driver in the series.
"He's found something with his engine ... he's found something to do and he's picked up some extra horsepower and I don't think he'll be telling anyone what it is," said Lobb.
"He's won the last five races and nobody can touch him."
He is, however, happy to have stayed ahead of the defending champion Michael Shepherd this weekend.
"I finished ahead of Michael in all the races so I have overtaken him in the championship and that's what I want to do," says Lobb.
With Selby Allison and Ian Foster still ahead of him in the standings, Lobb has decided on the strategy to play in order to move up the ladder.
"I think we have to be patient with Ian and Selby because they are hot and cold drivers," says Lobb, who before the start of the season said he would be concentrating on being consistent and finishing races.
"They'll either be real fast or spin themselves off - I think it may just be a waiting game."
Lobb will play the waiting game while trying to stay consistent with high-end results which will hopefully bring him the title, before moving on to a full season in Formula Ford next year.
The weekend was not without its highs and lows but fortunately Lobb managed to escape incident, albeit very narrowly in race two on Sunday morning.
"It was really slippery one lap and I nearly lost it on the sweeper and then Simon (Hardy) spun out in front of me.
"I couldn't see anything but there was obviously something on the track - I had to slam on the anchors or I would have T-boned him!" he said.