All three races features rolling starts. Photo: Matt Smith
Race 1
Jame Watson wins a dominant race one of the SsangYong Rhino Race Series.
Watson lead the field, front start to finish with Todd Prujean in his slipstream, Adam Carpenter in third.
There was a battle for third as Christina Orr-West and Peter Vodanovich put big pressure on third place Carpenter.
Half way through the race and Prujean is patiently waiting for Watson to make a mistake, but Watson is keeping cool under the pressure.
With two laps to go Watson is still keeping Prujan at bay, further afield they are going three wide, as Vodanovich gets past Orr-West and takes fourth.
Last lap and Preujan tries to go round the outside of Watson into turn one, but can’t make it stick and goes sideways, he regathers but the mistake has given Watson a healthy lead and Prujean won’t get another opportunity to try another overtake.
Race one finishing order:
1: Watson
2: Prujean
3: Vodanovich
Carpenter, Brook, Mallard, Stoneman, Foster, Vanderloos round out the top 10.
Race 2
Murray Brook leads from start to finish in race 2 with Todd Prujean second and Christina Orr-West in third and Adam Carpenter in fourth.
Behind Carpenter, the Crème team are going side by side turn after turn battling for for fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively.
Nickolas Lowndes goes wide but safely rejoins, without hitting anyone in the tightly grouped field.
Prujean is still hanging onto the bumper of Brook going down the front straight, Carpenter who is fourth just sets the fasted lap.
Orr-West is now sitting behind Prujean, who is taking a look at going round the outside.
Two of the Crème cars, Watson and Vodanovich put Carpenter in a sandwich as they both go around each side of Carpenter and squeeze through dropping carpenter down to sixth but Carpenter manages to get a place back from Vodanovich.
Watson has now moved up to fourth, he tries to catch the top three cars who have all pulled away with almost three second lead. Prujean tried to go around the outside in turn one but these SsangYong utes are very evenly matched and unless Brook gets it wrong the door looks firmly shut.
Watson went wide and goes onto the grass with one lap to go he rejoined and managed to keep his position but Carpenter and Vodanovich are now close behing.
The frist three cars Brook, Prujean and Orr-West cross the line tightly grouped.
1: Brook,
2: Prujean,
3: Orr-West
Watson, Carpenter, Vodanovich, Mallard, Stonemason, Lowndes, Vear round out the top 10.
Race 3
Carpenter wins in bold last lap move. Adam Carpenter won the final race of the Ssangyong Rhino Utes Series event at Pukekohe Park Raceway, in a daring last lap move on Peter Vodanovich.
Carpenter took control early in the race, as he and Vodanovich began to draw away as the race drew on. Eventually, Vodanovich passed Carpenter for the lead on lap 4.
Behind them, Todd Stoneman was fending off Todd Prujean, who had trudged forward from the rear of the grid to put the pressure on throughout the opening laps, despite losing the front bumper after 8 laps. Eventually however, the loss of areodynamics began to hurt Prujean’s pace.
An opportunistic move from Christina Orr-West in turn one saw the number 55 SsangYong swoop past Prujean and Stoneman into third place on lap 10.
Tayler Bryant had a race to forget, as early contact with the wall, as well as problems several laps later led to his retirement on lap 4.
Murray Brook encountered mechanical issues midway through the race, putting him half a minute behind the pack, and out of the running for the podium. Although, he would achieve the fastest lap of the race, in an otherwise uneventful race for him. Team-mate Lincoln Prouting was lucky to escape the gravel trap in the esses, but the excursion left him trailing.
Up the front however, Carpenter kept on the rear bumper on Vodanovich. Keeping the pressure applied right until the final lap, when Carpenter made a bold move into the final corner. The drag race to the line saw Carpenter win the race by 0.024 of a second.
The battle for the final step on the podium between Orr-West and Stoneman was eventually resolved in favour of ITM-backed driver.
Stoneman, Mallard, Prujean, Watson, Lowndes, Henney, and Vear rounded out the top 10.
