KEY POINTS:
A breakthrough win at the sixth round of this year's Yokohama Australian V8 Ute Racing Series at the beginning of August has put fast-rising young Auckland driver Colin Corkery's season back on track.
After a strong start to this year's series the Supercharge Batteries-backed 24-year-old Ford driver from
the North Shore was second in the points standings behind the favoured Layton Crambrook. But an intermittent electrical problem blunted his attack at the next three rounds, seeing him slip back to eighth place.
He is now back up to fifth, however, after the latest series round at the Winton circuit in Victoria. Though the weekend didn't start particularly well - Corkery qualifying eighth then being punted off the track early in the first race - the reverse grid format of the weekend's second race finally worked to his advantage.
Few drivers like the reverse grid format which inverts the top 16 finishing positions in the first race to come up with the grid for the second. But after fighting his way back up through the field after he was sent spinning off it, Corkery found himself in 16th place at the flag.
That was all the encouragement he needed, gapping the field by four seconds on the first lap then holding that advantage to the line.
He had a slightly harder row to hoe in the third and final race of the weekend, starting from fourth spot on the grid, but after briefly slipping back to fifth he quickly regained his starting place then pushed past class stalwart Kim Jane to claim third, just behind race and round winner Gary Baxter and championship points leader Layton Crambrook.
This is Corkery's second year in the popular Yokohama V8 Ute Racing Series across the Tasman and though he has had his share of ups and downs - he finished 11th overall last season - despite several visits to the podium the young Kiwi is adamant the decision to commit to the high-profile Australian series was the right one.
"Definitely. Particularly if, like me, you want to get into Supercars. I could have stayed here and put together a V8 drive [in the local NZV8s championship], and I could still do that, but right now I want to be in Supercars and to get there I have to be in Australia, under the noses, if you like, of the V8 Supercar people."
Despite starting out as an "entertainment" category the Yokohama V8 Ute Racing category quickly morphed into what today is the first rung on the "tin-top" talent ladder.
Impress behind the wheel of one of the lightly modified V8-powered Ford or Holden utes as Warren Luff, Dean Canto, Damien White and Grant Denyer have and there's every chance you will be able to move up to the Fujitsu V8 Supercar (ex Development) Series or, as Luff, Canto and Denyer have, to the main game.
There are several reasons, the main one being that canny management and marketing has seen the series join the V8 Supercars at most of the big meetings, including this year the annual Bathurst 1000km meeting at Mt Panorama.
With only light engine and chassis modifications plus a control tyre the 16 Ford and 16 Holden utes are virtually identical, with the margin between the top drivers now measured in hundredths, rather than tenths, of a second.
POINTS TABLE
2008 YOKOHAMA V8 UTE RACING SERIES
Points after Round 6 of 8
1. Layton Crambrook 532
2. Kim Jane 494
3. Grant Johnson 468
4. Gary Baxter 422
5. Colin Corkery 389
6. Ryal Harris 386
7. Jack Elsegood 380
8. George Miedecke 377
9. Stephen Robinson 366
10. Craig Dontas 346