Media release: 19th February 2008
Hunt Blows All Expectations at Manfeild
Rookie driver Marty Hunt is completely over the moon with the success
of his first ever entry into the Tier one level of New Zealand
motorsport after placing eighth overall in this weekend's NZ Mini
Challenge.
Driving the Moneyworks-TypeFace Mini Cooper S over the weekend at
Manfeild Autocourse the Wellington driver exceeded all his goals for
his debut with the top 10 placing which included starting from the
front row in the final race and leading for over five laps.
"I actually blew all of my expectations out of the water and was
extremely happy with the way the weekend went. The car went like a
rocketship which is thanks to Brent Melhop and the Wilford Motorsport
team. I set my personal best time in Friday's practice and then in
qualification on Saturday I set another new personal best so I was glad
to see I was improving." said Hunt who had been in the car only one
time previous to the weekend while at a club meeting held at Manfeild
over the off-season.
Hunt qualified 13th with a time of one minute 21.380 seconds which was
a mere 1.209 seconds off pole sitter Courtney Letica displaying just
how competitive the class is.
Hunt was very pleased with himself to place 12th in Saturday's Race One
and after that result he and the team set a target to get up into the
top 10 the following day in Race Two.
"After the first race we knew that if I could get into 10th in Race Two
then we could get a start from pole for the final. With a big final
push in the last lap I managed to get ahead of Clarke Hopkins and held
on until the end and placed 10th which would give us the pole we
needed. Keeley Pudney, who won the race, was later given a time penalty
which promoted me to ninth but then also put me back to second for the
start of the last race." he said.
Still to start from the front row, Hunt knew that he was going to have
to pull a rabbit out of the hat if he was to get around the outside of
the long sweeping turn one and steal the lead from Hopkins who was
beside him on the inside.
Hunt had a blinder of a start against Hopkins and went off in front of
the field and led for the first five laps looking very strong.
Unfortunately going into the hairpin, an aggressive challenge from
behind culminated in a hefty nudge in the rear of the
Moneyworks-TypeFace Mini Cooper S which upset the car enough for him to
lose three places. Now sitting in fourth place he was faced with
holding his own against championship leader Brent Collins who was
putting in a strong effort to get past the Wellington rookie before the
chequered flag.
"It was a real thrill for me to be in the lead of a race and know that
I was holding off the best drivers from the series. A highlight of the
race was when Bones (Brent Collins) got past me and I pulled him back
in by going inside him and re-took the position.I was completely buzzed
over that." he said.
Hunt maintained his fourth place to the end of the final race and
placed eighth overall for the round with an impressive 118 points on a
high with the achievement in his debut round.
"I would also like to compliment the NZ Mini Challenge class where
someone who hasn't raced before can manage to finish a race in fourth
place. It shows that it is a very good class for those wanting to give
motor racing a go and there is such a huge comraderie in the class it
was just really great!" he said.
"I just couldn't have asked for more from the weekend, it was just a
huge high. It was strange how different the races were from qualifying
and practicing - you don't get time to think about driving because you
just get taken over from the moment. It was the strangest sensation of
not actually feeling scared or worrying about it but feeling that I
have to push harder and harder. It was an absolutely brilliant weekend
and I'm not sure whether to carry on or retire while I'm on top and on
a high!" he joked."
Marty Hunt lives in Cambourne, Wellington after moving from Surrey in
the UK at the age of 18. He has less than one year under his belt
within
motorsport with his only competitive driving experience in that
time being two club events held over Winter last year at the
Manfeild circuit.
"Well it all started with me just going along for the ride really and
we've somehow ended up at the serious end of the racing. I was going
along to the BMW mini track days with Martin Collins (who runs the Mini
Challenge) then Brent Melhop and I thought we should maybe have a go.
The
rest, as they say, is history." says Hunt. "The idea is to get out
there and experience just one more piece of life that I haven't done so
yet."
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