Team Kiwi Racing’s Matthew Hamilton set a storming pace in MINI Challenge when
the series visited the historic Teretonga Park circuit near Invercargill last weekend.

The former kart racing champion and Toyota Racing Series ace won all three of the MINI Challenge races, earning plaudits from team boss David John who said that Hamilton had done his chances of running in TKR’s proposed V8 Supercar development series programme this year “no harm at all.’’

By contrast, Hamilton’s team mate Ryan Bailey had an unusually low key meeting as he battled a virus and a mysterious lack of horsepower that cost him as much as five car lengths on the long straight at Teretonga.

In the battle for top privateer, David Grigor emerged on top, taking two second places on his way to second overall for the weekend.

Despite gaining a good haul of points, Grigor also experienced mechanical problems during the weekend. On two or three occasions the car refused to turn left, which left him frustrated, especially as it cost him the lead in the second race.

Once the team arrives at Timaru Raceway this weekend for the fourth round, Grigor’s team will set to and try to solve the problem, with the steering rack being the likely suspect. The steering problems caused Grigor to tap Mark Maddren at one stage.

Maddren, who is usually amongst the pace setters, had “one of those weekends’’ despite Teretonga being his favourite track. He got held up on what he had thought would be his best qualifying lap and tangled with Wayne Timms in one race and had the incident with Grigor in another.

Gavin Yortt had a confidence-boosting weekend, and heads for Timaru secure in the knowledge that he picked up two second places at Teretonga.