By Staff Reporter Whanganui-born driver Matt Gibson is aiming to be right up the front at this weekend's fifth round of the popular amateur sports ute Ssangyong Racing Series at Manfeild Park.
A former Toyota TR86 and V8 Ute series competitor, Gibson had initially planned to have the season away fromracing due to a lack of funding. However, he got offered the drive of a Ssangyong ute in November for the second round of the series, which was a support race to the ITM 500 for V8 Supercars at Pukekohe.
The Gibson team have taken the ute on for the rest of the series for owner Andrew Wright of Wright Tanks. "I had decided I was going to take a year off motorsport, save some money and concentrate on my business of driver coaching," said Gibson.
"But basically two weeks out from the Pukekohe round it was confirmed I would be running a Ssangyong ute in the racing series. "I wasn't very keen at first but I completed a test day at the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park in Taupo, set the quickest lap of the day and realised how much fun they were."
He said the trucks are nothing like anything he has driven before. "The trick is to get the power down without any wheel spin, but to learn that takes time.
"So I was pretty happy with how quick I picked it up. If anything, I can relate the driving style to a NZV8 Ute but with less power - it's a waiting game. Don't jump on the brakes and expect them to stop in an instant and don't jump on the gas and expect to rocket out of the corners." Having entered three of the four rounds so far, Gibson sits tenth overall in the series, so his goals are podium placings rather than the overall championship.
Most race weekends in the series usually has 30 utes on track, fighting for the top spot. The racing is tight and close with lap times within hundredths of a second of each driver and usually one second covering half the field or more.
All trucks have identical specs under tight rules, and each round winner gets $1000 of the total $3000 prize pool. Being held during the NZGP race weekend at Manfeild, race 1 for the fifth round is on Saturday, with two races on Sunday.
