Consistent Lobb stays undefeated

Whangarei's Caine Lobb has continued his winning start in the ENZED V8 Ute Challenge series by taking out overall victory in the second round at Ruapuna over the weekend.
Lobb took his Mark Cromie Holden to a win, a second and a third place over the three races to accumulate sufficient points to win his second successive round.
The V8 Utes provided superb racing for the large crowd at the Canterbury circuit and the Whangarei driver was understandably rapt to extend his lead in the competition despite it getting tougher on the track.
"Everyone is picking up there game, it's getting harder to pass people but it's all good because we managed to bank heaps of points and win the weekend," Lobb said.
Second overall was Christchurch's Simon "Jnr Burner" Beirne in the Team McDonald's Falcon, with the final podium spot going to Mike "Buzz" Lightfoot in his Falcon.
The best news for Lobb was that his chief rival, defending champion Chris Pither, aka "The Gypsy", had another weekend fraught with problems in his Gallagher XR8 Falcon, dropping back into third place in the championship.
"Chris had a shocking weekend by his standards and we've got about 140 points on him now so if all goes well, we could probably finish behind him for most of the season and still wrap the championship up," Lobb said.
The 2009 champion was beaten by Pither last year trying to defend his title and said the experience has made him a better driver.
"But it's only two rounds in and a lot can happen still, so we've got to concentrate on finishing every race - that's a must - and we'll still be going hard out to win a few more," Lobb said.
After setting the second quickest time at practice behind Pither, Lobb needed to take evasive action to avoid a huge accident at the first corner of the first race on Saturday afternoon - which set the tone for an exciting weekend.
"There was a big accident in front of us and we managed to get through without a mark on the car, so we were quite lucky," he said.
Lobb danced through the carnage to move from seventh place on the grid - courtesy of a marble draw - into second place and then improved one spot to win the race from Simon Beirne, with Chris Hanley third.
On Sunday morning, Peter Ward was on pole position despite misgivings about the handling of his ute. Lightfoot passed him immediately, before Beirne took over the lead on the second lap, and the two Ford drivers carried on untroubled to the finish.
Behind them, plenty was happening. Lobb worked his way through from ninth place on the grid into third, with Hanley fourth. Pither, who started from the pit lane after failing to finish Saturday's race, was fifth with Rob Jarvis continuing his good weekend with a sixth placing. Simon Beirne was on pole for the finale, with Lobb alongside, but Beirne could not see the start lights and Lobb got the jump. From there, he made every post a winner until a safety-car period closed the field up. Pither, who had worked his way through the field, then seized his chance, sneaking through to win from Lobb and Beirne.
The series now moves to Invercargill's Teretonga Park on the weekend of January 14-16.