Gibson savours new experience down south

ON TRACK: Car set-up will be crucial to Matt Gibson's chances in the two rounds of the TR86 Championship in the South Island if he is to remain on track for podium finishes.PHOTO/SUPPLIED

Wanganui's Matt Gibson and his Lightingplus racing team have headed south for the third and fourth rounds of the 2014/15 Toyota Finance TR86 Championship.

The third round was held at Christchurch's Mike Pero Motorsport Park at the weekend and the fourth will be held at Invercargill's Teretonga Park next weekend.

At round one at Taupo Motorsport Park Gibson had a great start to the championship with pole position, a win in the first race and a second in race two. But the smiles soon turned upside-down after a collision between Gibson and another car in the final race ended Gibson's day.

For round two at Pukekohe Park Raceway the team were hoping to continue their pace and pull some much-needed points back, but Gibson missed most of Friday testing and replacing both front wheel bearings. After working his way up to fourth place in the opening race he was given his first black flag for a racing incident.

"The incident was very minor and the other car recovered well. I believe the officials were a bit over the top with their decision on the black flag and a lot of other drivers and teams agree with me," Gibson said.

"But the decision was made and I have to obey what the officials tell me."

In race two Gibson had to start at the back due to the black-flag incident, but finished sixth after finding his way through the back markers early in the race.

In the final race Gibson showed he still has the pace and finished fourth after a good battle with the top five cars.

The team are excited for the two rounds in the South Island as neither track has hosted the TR86 championship before.

"It will be a new experience for all the teams and drivers as no one has data or set-up info for these two tracks.

"Most of the drivers in the field have driven at both of these tracks so track knowledge isn't a biggy, but car set-up will play a massive part in who is fast, and who isn't.

"The cars are so sensitive to change so it will be interesting to see which teams gets it sorted first and which teams don't get it sorted at all.

"I haven't been to Ruapuna since 2010 and Teretonga since 2012 so it will take me a few test sessions to get back in the groove, but I'm looking forward to the challenge and jumping back into the car," Gibson said.