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HODSON QUAILIFIES ON FRONT ROW AND TAKES FIRST RACE PODIUM
So close to a debut round podium but super happy with the weekend!
Friday
Practice: We were super strong out of the gate, running P1 most of the session until everyone jumped on green tires, ultimately bumping us down to P4 but the car felt great and I knew there was more in me.
Qualifying: This was super good off the bat and on the first green tyre run I put in a lap for P3 before sitting in the pits for a while contemplating when to go out for another crack. I was sitting P4 in the final minutes and then got a clear lap and managed to split the form qualifying stars putting the McElrea rocket on P2!
Race 1: First time on the front row and super happy to lead the poleman and championship leader into turn 1 as the sun set for the day. All sorts of things go through your head when you are lining up for a start to one of these races and that starts all over again when you head into the sunset realising you are leading the angry pack. I held the lead for a couple laps before losing the lead to one of the EBM cars. Stayed P2 for several laps before the second EBM car managed to get by. We ran the remaining laps in P3 to secure my first podium for the season!
Saturday
Race 2: Starting P3 I had a good start and kept 3rd through the first few corners. We were elevated to 2nd after the leader went off and then a safety car came out for a separate incident. Unfortunately, there was a mistake at this point and we got put back to 3rd for the restart when we should have been 2nd. On the restart we were escorted wide and had to revert to Sprintcar style to save it, fell back to P5. A post race penalty was applied to the other car and we finished P4.
Race 3: Going in equal on points with team mate Ryan, it was whoever finished in front for the last spot on the round podium. I got the jump on the outside but couldn’t quite clear him into T1. The race again had a couple of safety cars unfortunately but we brought the car home in another top 5 effort, only just missing the Round Podium.
Overall a great step forward for me particularly with our qualifying pace, starts and all of it culminating in us being in the top 5 every time we were on track. Still lots of work-on’s but if it was easy everyone would be here! Also a great result for McElrea Racing with 2nd,3rd and 4th for the round. Looking forward to Tasmania in a couple of weeks time – another first!
A massive thank you to Leigh, Andy, Woody, Timmy and all the boys for all their hard work and great to have Cruz here for the first time!
Thanks to my Partners for their ongoing support: