Motor Sport
Invercargill driver Jamie Conroy hasn’t had the easiest of runs in his rookie season in the BNT NZ Touring Car Championship. He has certainly had pace but a series of frustrating problems has blunted his challenge throughout the series.
Round 5 at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon in Feilding this weekend was a great example. The weekend consisted of three races and there were problems for Conroy in two of them while in the other he took a dominant win.
Conroy qualified third fastest in his Allied 24/7 Fuel Falcon on Saturday but the opening race that afternoon was over before it began when his bonnet flew up on the warm up lap, damaging the windscreen and leaving officials to deem the car unsafe for the race. The car was wheeled off the grid and into retirement, the latest in a catalogue of misfortune that has blighted his debut season in the category.
However Conroy bounced back in no uncertain terms on Sunday morning to take a fine victory from seventh on the grid. Conroy hustled the Allied 24/7 Fuel Falcon up to second by the end of the opening lap and was soon in the lead and never challenged for a dominant victory.
Retirement from the opening race on Saturday saw Conroy consigned to the rear of the grid for the final race of the round, a race in which he placed fourth. “I struggled to pull it up. When I came back into the pits at the end there were still 2-3,000 revs on the clock,” he said at the end of a worrying race.
Looking back on the round Conroy lamented, “I’m happy with the win but we had another run of bad luck. We certainly don’t have any good luck.”
The final round of the championship is scheduled for the weekend of 11/12 March.
Conroy’s campaign in the BNT NZ Touring Car Championship is supported by Allied 24/7 Fuel, Mobil 1, Horgan Farms, Southland Continuous Group, Sievwright Panel & Paint, PPG, Bluff Engineering & Welding, Choppa Tyres, E Hayes & Sons, Farmlands Co-operative Society Limited, Farmlands Real Estate, Vital Signs and Southern Probuilt Engines.