This coming weekend sees the final round of the 2013 Winger Suzuki Swift Sport Cup take place at the iconic Pukekohe Park Raceway. Hamilton racer Shaun Lawrence has managed to maintain a stranglehold on the Championship throughout the year, and heads to Pukekohe with a 45.5 point lead over arch rival Andrew Vincent.
Earlier this year Lawrence took a strong Round victory at the same location, and it’s a track he feels favours the brave, and that’s exactly what it will take for Lawrence to secure his first ever New Zealand race title.
“It’s been five weeks since that last round at Hampton Downs, but it feels more like five months! If I’m being honest I’m nervously excited, I’ve been wanting this my whole racing career and it’s come down to this” explains Lawrence. “We‘ve done everything we can to make sure the car is good, I’ve been working harder than ever on my fitness, and we’ve had fantastic support from our Sponsors and supporters. We’ve done all we can do and I just want to get going!” he added.
Friday is set down for Practice and qualifying, while Saturday morning has double-points on offer with an extended Race One (including compulsory pit stop), with Race Two taking place Saturday afternoon in the usual reverse grid format. The final race of the weekend (and Championship proper) takes place Sunday morning so there won’t be much time to let the nerves settle, something Lawrence feels will suit the Liquorland Racing team as a whole.
With a long range forecast set for showers throughout the weekend, even the weather could well play into the teams’ strategy, Lawrence being a stand-out performer in previously wet rounds. There is arguably no track in New Zealand that either Shaun or his father (and Team Manager) Graham Lawrence know better than Pukekohe, and that knowledge along with four years of Suzuki Swift Sport Cup racing that could well prove invaluable when the lights go green this weekend.
“There’s nothing we’d like more than to take out the endurance race on Saturday. It’s not only the double points on offer, we‘ve had a pretty average time of it with the longer races this year and it’d be nice to reward everyone that’s stood by us to put that one away. We’re not going to hold anything back, I can promise you that much!” said a smiling Lawrence.
Coming on board to help Lawrence and the Liquorland Racing Team is Hamilton-based performance company Coby Mufflers & Extractors. Coby joins a tight-knit family of sponsors including Liquorland, Opus Consultants, Virtual Print, AWS Graphics, JPS Media, New Balance, Coffee & Food Establishment and Voyager Trailers, all of whom have stood by and supported Lawrence for a number of seasons.
Keep an eye out for updates over the weekend on the teams’ Facebook page “Shaun Lawrence Racing”, or better yet head to Pukekohe Park Raceway and watch the Championship unfold in person.
