Mixed winners for Gardens Supersprint
TKA MEDIA NEWS
In what would be described as a mixed manner race, the Trans-Nation Supercars championship kicked off at the Dragon Trails Gardens Supersprint last weekend and from it a vary of different finishers was presented.
Race 1 honours plus the first TKA MEDIA Pole award went to Alex Little in the solo entry EXIDE Boss Truck Racing team, taking a controlled victory from Mark Bratby in the BOTTLE'O JD Motorsport BMW, and Brett Keenan taking the final podium in the RED BULL Hyundai Racing Team entry.
The race was not without its controversy with Sterling West out early after contact with Josh Banks in the SUPERCHEAP AUTO Tickford entry, a post race skirmish was dealt to and things resumed as normal.
A misread on strategy also saw front-runner Matias Vercelli make an unscheduled splash and dash in the dying stages of the first racing, having to settle for 4th when a 2nd place beckoned for the Mitsubishi driver.
The second race with it's reversed grid saw Alex Little unable to make the race to try and defend his race honours and with similar issues to race 1, Bailey Foord in the #22 Cross Motorsport entry was forced to withdraw with suspected clutch dramas. (Not really but for all drama purposes we'll run with this).
Sterling West would redeem himself with the second race honours with McKenzie Stewart in the #88 RED BULL Hyundai Racing Team car taking 2nd having not attended Race 1 and Brett Keenan would again see the chequered flag in 3rd granting him the championship points lead heading into Italy.re to edit...
Brett Keenan #888 around the Dragon Trail Gardens track. Photo: GTSPORTS/DeltaNiwaX
"To be honest if you were asked how to express yourself with two third places you'd be disappointed that you couldn't draw out the pace of your car and challenge for higher, the first race we got caught in the Sterling/Josh incident and lost ground to Mark and wasn't able to strike back, then in the second race we consolidated position to get points and let McKenzie past to have a crack at Sterling." Keenan told TKA MEDIA NEWS after the races conclusion.
"But to have two third places in a row and lead the championship as a result of it makes it a little easier to take delight in and I have to thank the boys for making a car capable of running up the front consistently and with few faults."
Keenan later admitted that his aim for the second race was to run a strategy that would at the end try to put himself in a spot that would help his teammate take the win, but a slight lapse in concentration put paid to that and nearly third place to boot.
"I knew McKenzie was pitting and he expected Sterling to follow so we had a plan and that was to keep me out one lap longer in hopes I could jump them both and then proceed to back Sterling into McKenzie to allow him to mount an attack." Keenan explained.
"To see them pretty much line astern coming out of pit entry I suppose my lapse of concentration got the better of me and I missed my braking marker by a couple of inches, from there it was off the track and grazing the barrier, I guess I'm lucky that Matias didn't have that fresh of tyres on his side otherwise he would have jumped me and I would have had much more work to accomplish to get that P3 finish."
Keenan holds a 27 point lead over Matias Vercelli in the drivers championship with Mark Bratby holding down third despite a below average finish in race 2.