Round 3 & 4 - Rockingham

 
First podium for Antony Hawkins in Pickup Racing Championship

Team Rockingham’s Antony Hawkins drove to a fantastic first podium of his Pickup Racing Championship career on the Rockingham Motorspeedway oval yesterday.

The 44-year-old started from row two and was lying sixth by the end of lap one. A second lap crash, which saw #51 John Mickel hit the wall at turn four and #22 Nic Grindrod spin, changed the field in the aftermath with Antony left leading behind the safety car. Once green flag racing resumed, Phil White moved into the lead, leaving Antony in second place and with 25 laps still remaining a pack of five trucks developed beginning the battle for the top places.

Steve Dance in the #16 Ben 10 truck move in to second on lap 11 and then Antony was under pressure from Pete Stevens in the #4 too with Pete past by lap 13. But Antony was not giving up and worked with the pack to move back ahead of Stevens, while Steve Dance had taken the lead from Phil White.

The front pack were swapping places with Steve, Phil and Pete all taking the lead while Simon Carr in the #15 truck also joined the party. But with just three laps to go Phil was just about holding onto the lead.

Hawkins looked to have missed out on a podium once again having sat in fourth and fifth for 10 laps, but as #16 Steve Dance hit the wall at turn two on the penultimate lap, Antony saw his chance to move into a podium place and grabbed second while Phil held on for the victory and Simon third.

With a huge downpour hitting Rockingham just before race two there was a mad scramble to decide on tyre choices. Simon Carr was on pole and initially took up the lead, but not for long as Nic Grindrod soon moved through the pack to take up the helm from Simon while Phil White was third.

On lap four it was Antony Hawkins who was up to third while Steve Dance was quickly up behind him. On lap ten, Steve made the move to take third, but on lap 11 had an uncharacteristic second crash of the day bringing out the safety car for five laps.

With Nic Grindrod taking a solid lead upfront, there was a chance of a second podium and a dream day for Hawkins who was running between third and fourth but he was clawed in by lap 22 and lost his first battle with Dave Briggs. Pete Stevens and Simon Carr, who had dropped back, were then up close behind the Team Rockingham truck with both having passed the #98 by lap 27.

Briggs was into second with Stevens behind him while Nic Grindrod was now half a lap ahead of the battling pack. On lap 31 Pete had moved ahead of Simon into second place and before the end of the race Simon was to lose another place to finish just off the podium. Nic recorded his third victory of the season more celebration following the birth of his twin boys just nine days before; while Pete Stevens and Phil White made up the other two podium places.

* Deduction of 5 points for Carl Boardley as per Regulation 3.2.2