Gibson rapt to be back home

HIS TERRITORY: Matt Gibson has been racing on the unfamiliar tracks in the South Island and is looking forward to returning to Manfeild this weekend.

AFTER the trials of the South Island, expat Wanganui driver Matt Gibson is pleased to be back on his "home track" at Manfeild for the penultimate round of the Toyota TR86 championship this weekend.

Gibson and his LightingPlus TR86 team currently sit fourth overall in the championship and still has his sights set firmly on a top three finish in 2014-15.

"I know we can do it, but the gap is around 100 points to third so it would be nice if a bit of luck went our way," Gibson said.

He sits on 567 points after four rounds of the six round series, hoping to catch up with Albany's Ash Blewett (680), while the title will be decided between Wellington's Jamie McNee (732) and Christchurch's Tom Alexander (750).

The last two rounds of the series were at Ruapuna (Christchurch) and Teretonga (Invercargill) respectively, new to all the Toyota drivers.

Gibson was already playing catch-up after an unfortunate DNF at the opening round of the championship in Taupo.

He had a rough start at Ruapuna with a blown gear box in lap one of qualifying, but the team got the car back to where he finished fourth for the weekend.

At Teretonga, Gibson got third in the opening race of three, but finished back in the pack on the other two.

"The pace was fast, the temperature was hot and the racing was close all weekend," said the team press release.

"Lap times were only separated by a mere 0.5 seconds between the top six cars."

Therefore, coming back to Manfeild, Gibson is pleased to be in familiar territory.

"Gibson's first ever car race was at the Manfeild circuit when he was 16 years old in a Formula First single seater," said the release. That experience got him firmly set on racing.

The round starts today with official testing, then qualifying and Race 1 are tomorrow.

Races 2 and 3 are on Sunday, along with the NZGP on the Sunday afternoon for the Toyota racing series.