Christina Primed to Fight Back at Taupo

With just the sixth and final round of her rookie season in the BNTV8s Championship remaining, Christina Orr reflects how she has learned the ropes the hard way mixing it up with the feild of aggressive Ford and Holden drivers.

At the weekend a field of hungry V8 drivers battled out round five on the Manfeild Autocourse in Feilding before heading to Taupo Motorsport Park next month to wrap up the highly competitive series.

Where the touring car adage 'rubbing is racing' is more of a suggestion than an indication of the BNTV8s genre, 22 year old Orr realises she wil have to fight to hold her own against a feild of very aggressive male drivers.

"At Manfeild the track is quite slow and technical and being in the mid-pack means getting caught up in quite a few incidents - before Manfeild we had nothing much more than some scratches but this weekend we had quite a bit with dents in every door and other people's paint all over the car."

"I want to finish with a good result and be able to pass other drivers without someone coming along and saying 'No! You've had your fun, that's as far as you go' before spinning me around or taking me out." she says.

Already with an impressive history in motor racing including Formula First, Formula Ford, Toyota Racing Series, Indy Lights in the USA, and tin-top enduros at Bathurst, Whakatane driver Orr has spent the majority of her career in open wheeled cars where contact is minimal.

Taking on a very new experience by fighting with the country's best and certainly the most aggressive drivers in the BNTV8s, she is learning to take the good with the bad when it comes to rolling with the punches.

At the weekend she found herself at the back of the pack twice after being pushed off the circuit.

Setting a good pace in the Commodore on Saturday at the Manawatu circuit, Orr was just 0.334 of a second off the pace to qualify for the top 10 shootout eventually claiming 19th place on an extremely competitive grid for the start of the first race.

Finishing race one unscathed on Sunday morning it was in race two where her driving talents were rewarded with an excursion into the tyre wall and a limp to the pits for a DNF.

Passing past-champion Paul Manuell down the Manfeild back straight she was put off the circuit and into the wall when an opponent was unaware of her making the passing maneuver.

"Race two was a good one and I was up into 14th place - I had passed Paul Manuell and David (Hopper) hadn't seen me on the inside and he came over on me." said Orr.

Her race was over after being pulled from the tyre wall when she realised the car was unable to continue and had to retire.

In the third and final race of the weekend Orr started on the second row due to the reverse grid format. What started off as another promising race was soon turned on it's head when a driver came from behind charging into the back of the Commodore and spewing her off across the grass and dirt.

"I was battling with Andrew (Anderson) and another driver behind us cut the corner, crossed the curb and the grass and went straight into the back of me - it was pretty blatant."

"They say rubbing is racing which I don't mind but it's just the hitting I don't like. For some reason I seemed to be fair game at the weekend with other drivers just driving into me for no reason." she said.

Chirstina Orr qualified 19th, placed 18th in race one, DNF in race two and 19th in race three out of a feild of 25 cars. She is currently in 21st place in the BNTV8s Championship standings and second in the rookie standings to Invercargill's John Whelan.

The final round held at Taupo Motorsport Park on the weekend of 20-21st March 2010 will be a nail biter where Orr could make up the 65 point defecit between her and Whelan to win the Rookie Championship.

In the running for the BNTV8s Championship overall title currently Craig Baird is looking very strong with a 131 point advantage over two time champion John McIntyre. Also in the running is a very strong Tim Edgell in third and with a purely mathematical chance only, is another two time champion Kayne Scott trailing the leader by 176.

There are 225 points maximum available at each round.

Following the season wrap up is the non-championship round at the ITM 400 in Hamilton where the BNTV8s will support the fifth round of the Australian V8 Supercars over the weekend of 16-18th April 2010.

ENDS

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