Motorsport tends to kick you when you are down, and there was a feeling of that in the team garage as the chequered flag fell on race thirteen.

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In the first part, both boys rolled out reasonably well, punching top 10 times on their used sets before boxing and holding for 2 final runs.

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As green tyres were fitted, they returned to the track with the rest of the field and safely held positions to progress into the second partof qualifying.

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Through the second part of qualifying, we encountered some of the difficult conditions that we have experienced the last few days, battling overall grip and balance through the challenging Ruapuna Raceway.

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When the time ran out in the second part of qualifying,Waters just held onto 10^th position with Randle only a couple of tenths behind but outside the cut off line.

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QUALIFYING RACE THIRTEEN

#6 Cam Waters: 8^th

#55 Thomas Randle: 16^th

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There was a chaotic 20 minute set up change for Waters before the Top 10 Shootout, which he rolled out first to open the session.

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Waters had a clean lap that looked perfect until a little grip issue toward the end of the lap, but he still punched a respectable time for being first out.

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TOP TEN SHOOTOUT

#6 Cam Waters: 8^th

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There is a plethora of words that could describe the start of race thirteen and they were all said in the garage as the cars pulled awayfrom the grid and Waters didn’t move.

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A battery issue was present for Cam who couldn’t get the car started on the grid to begin the warm up lap. This meant he had to pull into the lane, turn the car off and restart it to prove the vcar could be started underits own power.

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Starting from the pit lane meant once the red lights went out, he was effective last in the final New Zealand race.

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As for Randle, it was a solid start and he had made one move up in the timings through the first few corners. Then an almightly spin occurred with multiple cars being collected and a call from Randle over the radio thats parked the

team into action.

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When the cameras cut to car #55, you could see an incredible amount of front and rear damage on the car. Added to that, a tyre was damaged which meant an early box for repairs to get some race tape on and change thetyre.

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Randle battled both front bar and diffuser damage throughout the race that hurt overall pace, although there were parts of the race Randlehad the car in a really good window.

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A shoutout also goes to the wider team who rectified yesterday’s pit stop gremlins and delivered four really strong stops across the 200km race.

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Waters managed to strongly recover throughout the race as he avoided any damage and managed the lap pace effectively.

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RACE THIRTEEN

#6 Cam Waters: 19^th

#55 Thomas Randle: 16^th

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We know on all fronts the last two weeks have not been to the mark or the standards we want as a team.

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These next few weeks at the workshop are going to be deeply analysed as to what we need to do collectively to find winning race pace again.

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It goes without saying, but the team are incredibly excited to be back here in 12 months time not only to be delivering better results, butalso be back amongst the NZ people.

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The welcome and hospitality of everyone we have come across has been refreshing and made a tough time on track, that much better off track.

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With the cars being loaded back into the shipping containers and crews packing bags to head home, we look to Tasmania as a bounce back forthe team at the end of May.

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