The Supercars yet again put on a weekend of racing magic and went to prove that every team can have a good day and any team can have a bad day.
Shortly after the announcement that Nissan Australia were closing the bank on Kelly Brothers Racing, Rick Kelly scored hisfirst win, and only the third for a Nissan, since 2011. While at the other end of the spectrum, Erebus and David Reynolds could not buy a single bit of luck or good management.
After seeing three New Zealanders on the podium after the second race on Sunday, I reckon the category are plotting to ban Kiwis from competing next year. It felt good to see Kelly get a win on Saturday and almost as good to see Fabian Coulthard get his first win in a while just to let his teammate Scott McLaughlin know that he's still a force to be reckoned with.
Having said that, if McLaughlin hadn't stuffed the start from pole he'd probably have won anyway. And speaking of Kiwis let's have a look at how another one got on in his respective category.
In a nut shell, it was all going so well until a pesky rock got in the way and Hayden Paddon's car fell off the road. There really is only one saving grace from this misadventure and that is he and co-driver Seb Marshall survived a 15G crash unscathed. However, I doubt Paddon will think so having had to be airlifted to hospital because of his back.
This was Paddon's first World Rally Championship outing since February in Sweden. He made a good start to his truncated 2018 campaign coming home in fifth less than a minute behind race winner Thierry Neuville.
Not so good in Portugal though. This might just now be his bogey event having his car catch fire in 2016 and then grinding to halt in 2017 with a mechanical drama. Three starts and three DNFs.
After a successful New Zealand rally campaign during his hiatus from the main game where he was unbeaten in each rally he contested, in fact he didn't lose a stage, I wonder if he was too much on the limit in Portugal.
This will probably sound counter intuitive to most racers, but I wonder if maybe the best rally driver we've ever had might just be trying too hard to prove a point. He was leading the rally in the early stages and maybe could have dialed back a notch to finish inside the top three and get valuable manufacturer points for Hyundai and potential keep his seat next year. Just saying …
There's a snooze fest in Monaco this weekend at the annual 'follow the leader' around the streets of the principality and my only hope is that Brendon Hartley can get his mojo going. The jungle drums are beating and the neigh-sayers are circling suggesting, that while he might have been good enough to be given a chance, is he good enough to stay?
There will be a queue of youngster with dad's deep pockets waiting to pounce.
I will have one eye on Monaco because of Hartley, but I will have both eyes and my entire attention focused on the Indianapolis 500 on Monday morning where Scott Dixon will start from ninth in the greatest spectacle in racing!
