Lightfoot Rides the Rollercoaster For Pukekohe Round Win

Lightfoot Rides the Rollercoaster For Pukekohe Round Win

Mike ‘Buzz’ Lightfoot has experienced the highs and lows of motor racing all within one weekend at the third round of the UDC V8 Ute series, held at Pukekohe over the weekend.

In a weekend that offered fans plenty of action packed racing, Lightfoot topped the qualifying times for the first time before suffering the biggest accident of his career in the opening race. After a huge effort from his team, he was able to return on Sunday to not only compete, but takes his maiden round win.

The only practise session was held in dry conditions and Lightfoot was immediately on the pace, setting a time early in the session that was bettered only in the dying stages, leaving the Aucklander in second.

But by the time qualifying came round, the heavens had opened and wet conditions worked in the favour of Lightfoot, who was the only driver to drop below a 1 minute 29 second lap to claim his first ever pole position.

But in the five minute break between qualifying and race one, torrential rain left the track with large amounts of standing water. After dropping back to third off the start, Lightfoot battled with the leaders but at the end of the opening lap, too much standing water saw the Precision Components Falcon fly into the concrete barriers, causing severe damage.

With two other Utes also coming off in the space of two corners, there was a silver lining with the race being red flagged and no results declared, meaning Lightfoot didn’t lose out on any points.

After the Stoneman Race Tech team spent all of Saturday night straightening and repairing the Precision Falcon, Lightfoot was able to take his place on the front of the grid for race two, having drawn the number one marble. Despite driving a Ute that was still bent, Lightfoot came home in a solid third place.

Race three saw Lightfoot starting from the back of the 12-car field with the reverse marble draw and aided by some carnage at the start of the race, recorded a phenomenal second placed finish to be top qualifier for the final race.

Starting the final race of the weekend from pole position, Lightfoot sat in second across the opening couple of laps before reclaiming the top spot and holding that until the race was declared after an accident on lap six, leaving Lightfoot as not only the race winner, but also round winner for the first time in his career.

“I really have to dedicate this win to all the Stoneman Race Tech boys, they worked their butts off on Saturday night to not only give me a Ute to drive, but a winning one too,” said Lightfoot. “I’m just absolutely stoked, we went from hero to zero and back to hero again!”
Press Release by BB Media

-ENDS

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