70th Championship Race Win for Shepherd

Three times NZ Formula First Champion Michael Shepherd drove a tactical third and final race at Manfeild’s “Thunder in the Park” on Sunday, to take his career national championship wins in the highly competitive class to 70, the win also extending his lead in the national championship.

The ‘Go Rentals’ machine started Sunday’s final race from the second row behind round winner Andrew Vincent and Speedsport Scholarship Rookie Aaron Hodgson. Shepherd bolted into the lead and seemingly controlled the race from turn one onwards. The lead changed almost a dozen times in the eight lap race, although Shepherd was never any further back than second position, and timed his pass on the final lap to go by Vincent to take the win.

However, Shepherd struggled for pace in the wet conditions that affected qualifying and the opening two races. Qualifying fourth quickest, the Go Rentals / Inov8 sponsored Shepherd was unable to match the pace of Vincent and Hodgson, who together showed great skill and confidence in each other by frequently running two wide through ‘Dunlop’. These two putting on a great display in very wet conditions that saw many drivers come unstuck particularly at ‘Higgins’ and ‘Toyota’.

Fittingly, the two opening race spoils were shared by Hodgson and Vincent, with Shepherd finishing third in both races. Impressive performances in the wet came from Jamie Gaskin who finished 4th for the weekend, extending his string of top five finishes this season. Ryan Hellier made a welcome return to finish 5th for the round, along with past Champion Paul Butler proving he hasn’t lost any of his skills in his underpowered Challenge, finishing the round in fifth spot.

Rookie Kyle George was impressive in the wet showing that with a little more experience he will surely be fighting for podiums in the near future. Also making good progress through the field was the ‘Tradezone - King Tony Tools’ entry of Bradley McDonald, finishing 7th for the meeting, along with Darren Henderson of Palmerston North who had his best round of the season to date and now sits just outside the top ten in the championship.

An ecstatic Shepherd said “I needed that win in the final, as we had not had the pace to stick with Andrew and Aaron in the wet. I put myself under a lot of pressure, as I knew a win would swing the momentum back with us going into the next round. We know the reason why we were off the pace in the wet and to rectify it during the meeting was just not possible unfortunately, so we just had to do the best we could in those conditions. Congrats to Aaron on his first win and to Andrew for the round win.”

The Go Rentals / Innov8 team now prepare to head to the newly developed Hampton Downs circuit for the next round of the championship. Shepherd said that it is “exciting to have a new track to race on and I’m sure once again the Formula First racing will be just as close on the new circuit.”

Michael Shepherd