Chris Alajajian has come up trumps in a battle with V8 Supercar legend Glenn Seton to win the opening race of Hertz MINI Challenge - delivered by Pizza Capers at this weekend’s Armor All Gold Coast 600 – round 6 of the series.
The JAXQuickfit Tyres driver was locked in a fierce battle with Seton until the veteran tried to pass Alajajian on lap 8, clipping the inside rear and spinning both competitors. Fortunately for Alajajian, the pair we’re far enough ahead of the field for him to rejoin the track and retain the leading position.
Unfortunately for Pizza Capers UberStar driver Seton, the incident caused enough damaged to the front right wheel that he slipped back to 13th before retiring to the pits on the final lap. Despite the setback Seton still picked up a maximum 36 points in today’s earlier Qualifying session where he threw down a phenomenal final lap to snatch pole – off Alajajian – by a skinny 0.22 seconds.
Benefiting from the incident was Gold Coast MINI Dealer Beric Lynton who had a superb run to hold-off DecoRug Racing’s Paul Stokell after Lynton passed the 2009 MINI Challenge champion on the opening lap. Lynton steered home in second with Stokell topping off the podium places finishing just three and a half tenths behind the Gold Coaster.
Fourth and fifth respectively went to the rookie pairing of Peter McNiven and Sean Carter as the two Victorian youngsters continue to battle for third-place championship honours. Coming home in sixth was Prosurv Racing’s John Modystach who had a sensational race to post his best finish of the year in the MINI Challenge series.
Rounding out the top-seven was Kiwi driver Gavin Yortt in the Squawking Magpie Wines entry. The result will see Yortt start tomorrow’s Race 2, on pole, thanks to the top-50% reverse grid system designed by the category to create a more level playing field and greater action for the excitement-fuelled Gold Coast racing fans.
Other notable performances included circuit racing debutant Troy Adam’s amazing eighth place finish in his first time out in the MINI R56 Challenge car. After a gearbox failure in practice this morning Cook Racing worked flat out to have the #25 car of Brenda Cook looking brand new with a new gearbox and, despite starting from the rear of the grid, ‘Cookie’ carved up the field to finish top-10 for the race.
It wasn’t all smiles for CXC driver Dave Thomas who was struggling as his R56 began losing a cylinder during the race. After setting top-10 times on the opening few laps the issue saw him drop down the field but Thomas is confident his team from Col Crawford’s will rectify things overnight and be right and ready for race 2.
DecoRug Boss and MINI Challenge debutant Bill Gremos had an unfortunate start to his opening MINI Challenge bid when the engine went in the #95 car during qualifying today. Fortunately his experienced team at Melbourne Performance Centre have replaced the engine and Gremos will re-enter the event for race 2 – albeit from the rear of the grid.
MINI Challenge Series Leader Chris Alajajian said:“Well it’s not often you get a love tap from a legend like Glenn Seton! He is my idol and it’s a shame it ended like that because we were going to battle hard, right down to the chequered flag, I have no doubt about that! But it’s one of those racing incidents and I feel sorry for Glenn because it will really make things tough for the rest of his weekend. It’s great to have that winning feeling back after a bit of a lacklustre round in Phillip Island and thanks Beric [Lynton] for keeping Paul [Stokell] at bay because that just extends my lead in the series. Maybe it’s easy to win but it’s a lot easier to lose it all so I have to stay extremely focused and make sure I finish the next two races strong to put my championship chances in a great position for the Homebush round in December.”
Pizza Capers UberStar Driver Glenn Seton said:“I had a run on him coming out of the chicane and I knew there were limited laps left so I dove down the inside but Chris started coming across for the apex and I locked it up a little and clipped the back of him. It was one of those unfortunate racing incidents and a shame because it was a great battle between us until then. Taking the first ever Pizza Capers UberStar pole was great for the guys here this weekend but now I have a massive task of starting from the rear of the grid tomorrow. We saw Paul [Stokell] do it at the last round in Phillip Island so nothing’s impossible in the MINI!
