Engine problems and a car "that wanted to leave the track at every corner" made the Pukekohe round of the New Zealand Formula First championship a testing time for Masterton driver Matt Stubbs. For all that, he remains third overall, well within reach of the top step of the series podium.He is 54 points behind the second-placed car, and there are 225 points available at each round. The next outing is the New Zealand Grand Prix meeting at Manfeild on January 12 14. In the last session it failed to respond on the approach to the esses at around 150km/h and shot across the grass, through the end of a sand trap and stopped just short of the wall. The Pukekohe meet produced typical Auckland weather, very hot with one or two light showers both days, making setting the car up difficult. Stubbs was the quickest at the end of the first practice session on Friday, but in the last session it failed to respond on the approach to the esses at around 150km/h and shot across the grass, through the end of a sand trap and stopped just short of the wall. The engineers could not find anything wrong. Next time out was qualifying, on Saturday morning. Stubbs got in a couple of laps before losing oil pressure on the good race engine. That put him out of the session, but his knack of getting a fast lap early paid off he was on the second row of the grid, a starting position he retained for the weekend. In race one, on a replacement engine, the handling went off again, dropping Stubbs from 3rd to 9th and an eventual 7th. By race two the handling was sorted and the Masterton man was up to third before the field got bunched by a safety car and two slipped by him. Race three ended with Stubbs fourth, with oil smoke coming from the engine. Sabre team boss Dennis Martin said Pukekohe is hard on engines. "With two engine changes and another not looking good, that's three engine rebuilds from the four team cars," he said.
