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Posted: 11/03/2010
LATEST NEWS: New Zealand Champs







Once again I find myself lagging behind in updates. I was going to go through all of the racing with updates on how things went, but after the news today I really don’t feel like commenting on those and talking more about what has completely f***** me off.

The New Zealand Champs was a meeting that I was really looking forward to and a good result here would turn my not so good season into a good one.

We qualified for the final 30 which was the only goal for the weekend. In the first heat of the finals I made up 5 places which I didn’t really think was enough. I knew I had to have a blinder in the second heat starting from grid 28, and found myself in the top 10 after the first couple of laps thanks to a couple of pile-ups that I managed to avoid. I ended up finishing in 5th which was a great result and put me back into the running.

All I was after was a top three finish in the last heat and knew that that would give me a good chance of getting a 1, 2 or 3nz number. There wasn’t too much action in the last heat and I finished up in 4th.

I found out on returning to the pits that I had missed out by 1 point and finished 4th overall. I don’t think there was any hiding the fact that I was absolutely gutted to come so close and then to end up with nothing. But there was only one person that I could blame and that was me.

I had mixed feelings for the next couple of days, being happy that I finished 4th in the country and then the sickening feeling that I came so close to getting a number but couldn’t pull it off.

It was a couple of days after the meeting that I found something out that shocked me. It had been revealed that there was a points error in heat one which should have left me tied for third overall. The more I looked into this the more shocked I was that nothing was done on the night when so many officials knew about this.

I spoke to the Wanganui club and they were aware that the mistake that happened. They kept tight lipped about it and said that SNZ were looking into it and that I would be kept informed.

After many phone calls and two and a half weeks after the event I was told that the points would not change. There have been several reasons that I am pissed off so everyone can make up their own minds as to whether it’s justified or not. I guess it’s all going to come out eventually so I may as well break the ice.
  • The Wanganui club and SNZ have both agreed that there was a points error and that I should have been 3rd equal.

  • The official lap scorer at the meeting was aware of the points error on the night of the meeting, even though it was after the run-off.

  • The steward of the meeting was told of the mistake with the points straight after the first race. They checked the electronic lap scoring and the manual lap scoring, both which showed the same wrong result. Nothing else was done.

  • After two heats the pit board showed that I got 22 points in the first heat and 28 points in the second with a total of 51 points. When my crew pointed this mistake out and that I only got 26 points in heat two, all the heat two points were rubbed off and didn’t get put up again before the cars were on the dummy grid. How official is that??

  • I was told that I should have protested after the first race and the outcome may have been different. The officials were made aware of the mistake and nothing got done. What difference would have it made if I made the protest myself??

  • Last year at the NZ Super Saloon champs the 1nz and 2nz positions were swapped around weeks after the event for the exact same reason - a points error. What’s different this time??
Isn’t it the putting right that counts?? Obviously not in SNZ’s case.

I think the most disappointing thing is that results have been changed in the past for the exact same reason yet they aren’t going to on this occasion. It would be great if they were consistent with the rulings/interpretations.

If anyone else has more info on this or different views, please feel free to email me at: kylelane91w@yahoo.co.nz