Crambrook’s Back In The Game

image: John Morris - Mpix

He may have given his rivals a bit of a head start to the Yokohama V8 Ute Racing Series but defending champion Layton Crambrook stormed back into contention over the weekend by virtue of a second place finish during the second round of 2009 at Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria.

Crambrook’s second place finish has now advanced him up to 10th in the current Yokohama V8 Ute Racing Series point standings and his weekend result certainly backed up his intentions heading into the weekend.

“After the disappointment of the opening round it’s great to bounce back and finish on the podium as it certainly doesn’t do our series chances any harm whatsoever,” commented the # 1 Mother / Maxibon supported XR8 BF Ford Falcon driver. “In qualifying we weren’t too flash and the same can be said for our sixth place result in the opening race but after that we got it all together in both race two and three and moved forward.”

When Crambrook says he ‘got it together’ he definitely doesn’t mess around and he proved that by finishing both race two and three in second place. In the second race, where he started from position 11 as the top 16 finishers in the opening race were inverted, Crambrook charged forward from the outset and ended up recording a second place finish. In the third and final race Crambrook was second highest point scorer and started from the outside of the front row beside pole sitter Jack Elsegood. In the third race Crambrook matched it for pace with Elsegood but simply didn’t have enough to move into the lead and finished up in second place.

“Both Jack [Elsegood] and I were pretty much on the same pace and with the Winton circuit being a tight layout it was difficult for us to get an advantage over one another,” Crambrook explained. “My race two result really setup my weekend and then we backed up that pace with another second place in the final race and I feel confident that we can continue to build on this promising result.”

For Crambrook this was the second year in succession at Winton Motor Raceway where he has finished second on the podium for the round after he last year finished in second behind winner Gary Baxter.

Crambrook also won the ‘Hard Charger Award’ for the second occasion of the year by his second place finish in the second race working his way up from grid position 11 to second passing a total of 10 cars in the process. The ‘Hard Charger Award’ rewards the driver that passes the most cars in a race for the round and they pocket a bonus $500 prize for their troubles.

The Yokohama V8 Ute Racing Series now moves on to Symmons Plains RaceWay down in Tasmania for the third round that is to be held on May 29 – 31.

To find out more about Layton Crambrook visit his official website: www.laytoncrambrook.com

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