Contesting this weekend’s penultimate round for the 2013 Winger Suzuki Swift Sport Cup comes with a twist as the field lines up for three races at the northern Waikato location of Hampton Downs 19-20 October.

Led by Hamilton’s Shaun Lawrence whose time at the top this season has been through consistent performance, it comes under pressure as the weekend’s format includes a double points reverse grid race on Sunday morning. The weekend’s top performer is in line for 145 points – a solid chunk against Lawrence’s total of 389.

In second, trailing Lawrence by 12.5 points is Karaka’s Andrew Vincent while third is Takapau’s Sam Barry – a further 26.5 points back.

The second time the series has raced at the 2.7km circuit this season – its contour following layout seems to suit the class of 1600cc Suzuki production cars in race trim. The season opening round in February wooed fans as the field put on a show as they often pour two wide through its sequence of turns.

Typically the scene for biff and bump style racing the weekend has four opportunities for scoring points – starting with the Saturday qualifying session. That’s followed by an eight-lap mid-afternoon race before the game-changing Sunday morning 25 lap reverse-grid grind. Added to that is a compulsory pit stop and tyre change by the team’s crew and double points for finishing – where a win is normally worth 35. The weekend rounds out with a ten-lap race early in the afternoon for a final grab of points.

“Hampton Downs is definitely a happy hunting ground for me and the team. It’s a fantastic circuit and really seems to suit my style of driving” says Lawrence, who took an early lead after that season opening round.
“We’re obviously going to run the setup we had for Round One and I can see this being a really pivotal weekend as far as the championship goes. If we can pull another strong result here it’ll take a lot of pressure off for Pukekohe” he added.

It’s that same strategy Vincent sees as an opportunity to leap-frog clear of his rivals – having finished runner-up to Lawrence last time the cars visited the circuit

“We’ve got to go in and get consistent results early,” said the university student of his weekend plan. “And with the long distance of the Sunday morning race we need to have a steady pace and with a good pit stop we should be okay. We got that right at Pukekohe when we had our first long race for the season – which really helped get the race win.”

Vincent also says he’s looking forward to the challenges of the Hampton Downs circuit: “It’s more of a drivers track and makes for close racing with its tighter corners. The undulations make it different for a driver than the flat tracks round the rest of country – so it’s a fun challenge.”

Along with Lawrence, Vincent and Barry, fourth placed Josh Drysdale (Palmerston North), fifth placed Glen Collinson (Hamilton) and seventh placed Grant Ryan (Lower Hutt) have also won races this year. That gives them credibility at being a potential top-points benefactor.

Winner of the previous round, Castrol Scholarship recipient and leading rookie Josh Drysdale has moved to within 79 points of Lawrence and says he’s out to right some wrongs after that opening round.

The first chance the cars get to assess each other’s form is Saturday morning with a short 15 minute practise session ahead of the 12:25pm qualifying.

The field also includes Christchurch’s Blair Robertson, Rotorua’s Thomas Joyes and Auckland’s Ben Macdonald. All three are series rookies.