MOTORSPORT - Lobb's triumphant return

Caine Lobb made a triumphant return to open-wheeled racing by winning the inaugural round of the new Formula Suzuki Championship at Pukekohe Park Raceway.
Claiming pole position in extremely wet conditions on Saturday morning, Lobb made good use of the Kumho wet tyres imported especially for the series.
"Apparently they are the same tyres as they use in Australian and European F3 and both the wets and slicks are very good," Lobb said.
There was a tough battle in the first of the three races between Lobb and Auckland karter Daniel Bray, who managed to get into the lead taking the very first victory of the new series.
"I was having problems going through Castrol and he managed to get a good run out of the corner and got past me but a few changes to the car and on Sunday it was fine," Lobb said.
"There is a lot we can do to the car to increase its performance and you can really feel any changes you make - it's a lot different to the Holden Ute I have been racing lately."
The new series uses a front and rear-winged chassis designed and developed for Suzuki Motorsport by well known driver "Monster" Tajima.
The power plant comes from the exceptional Suzuki Hyabusa motorcycle which lends the race cars a very handy 175 horsepower at an exciting 9800 revs and also a six speed sequential gearbox.
With a chassis weight of only 425kg that power can be translated into 400hp per ton and all on slick tyres.
On Sunday, Lobb was able to take the lead all the way to the finish line in both race two and three, wrapping up a victory in the first of five rounds in the Formula Suzuki Championship.
The Whangarei driver also set the Pukekohe Park Raceway lap record for the new Formula Suzuki cars in race three with a time of 1min:1.178secs.
"The Suzukis are very twitchy especially going through turn one at the end of the straight but when we all get used to them and start working on the set-ups we will see the times start to come down I think," Lobb said.
"At this stage we are all just getting to know the cars and the series is still very friendly."
The brand new Formula Suzuki Championship heads to Taupo Motorsport Park for round two this Sunday, a one-day event that includes all the action of a regular weekend with one qualification session and three races.
"The weekend at Pukekohe was mint and I can't wait for the next round this weekend," Lobb said.
After the Taupo meeting the series will head to Manfeild Autocourse in Feilding for round three over the weekend of March 28/29.
The dates of the final two rounds are yet to be announced.
After this weekend Caine Lobb will be back into the Mark Cromie Holden Racing Team V8 ute over the weekend of 6-8th March at Ruapuna Raceway. He is currently holding third position in that championship.