Richards Puts Tough Weekend In Perspective

Due to changeable weather a tough weekend was had by all at the fourth round of the BNTV8s Championship held at Timaru International Motor Raceway Saturday and Sunday.

Likewise for Hamilton driver Simon Richards although his weekend started off well with him again reaching the top 10 shootout and started ninth place on the grid for race one.

Richards has qualified inside the top 10 for three of the four rounds held thus far and is reflective of the improvement in speed on the SEW Eurodrive Ford Falcon for this season.

In addition this season has proven to be the closest contest between the field of New Zealand's best drivers since Richards entered the championship in 2004.

"We want to keep that rolling, getting into the top 10 makes the weekend run a lot smoother and we're pretty happy with making it three times so far." he said.

Untimely wet weather for the start of race one saw all but two cars lined up on the track on slick tyres as the rain began to pour.

The cars were started under wet conditions with drivers slipping off the circuit in all directions during the opening lap but when John McIntyre went off the circuit hitting a tyre wall at speed it resulted in the race being red flagged and temporarily halted.

Preparing the field for the restart there was confusion over the order after cars had entered the pits to change onto wet tyres before and after the red flag was deployed.

For Richards this meant he was relegated from a leading position to the rear of the grid for the restart.

"I was up to fourth place before the race was red flagged and we got caught in pit lane and started from near the back. said Richards.

He went on to move up through the field eventually making his way into 11th place before crossing the finish line.

In race two Richards finished 19th after going off the track mid-race and in a very wet race three was going well until two laps before the end where he left the circuit and became caught in a sand trap leading to his first DNF of this season.

"I just locked up the front right wheel and slid off, the conditions were treacherous and it's upsetting but you just have to live with it - that's part of racing, you're going to have a bad result somewhere down the line." he said.

But Richards and the Ballisitic Motorsport Team are happy with their result when considering last season where the car was close to being written off after hitting a tyre wall at high speed in race three.

"We're still better off than this time last year, the car's all good we just need to slip another front bumper onto it and we're ready for Manfeild."

"We've had a good trip to the South Island, we qualified twice in the top 10 and had just one DNF, the first one this season." he said.

After a very tough weekend Richards has slipped down the championship table to 15th but is just 40 points away from the top 10 where he sat for the first half of the season and plans to rejoin before the end.

"We dropped a few places in the championship but that's just because everyone is so close and only 40 points covers quite a few of us." he says.

The drivers and teams will next head to the North Island for round five at Manfeild Autocourse on February 13-14 with the final at Taupo on March 20-21.

The BNTV8s will also head to the ITM 400 at Hamilton over the weekend of April 16-18 where they will support the third round of the Australian V8 Supercars Championship.

Simon Richards battles the wet in Timaru - SportProMedia