“Kat Benson Racing — nothing can get in the way! Kat pushes through to lock in third place overall at Prowear NZ Superlap Series RD3, second in Pro Street and third in the top 10 shootout!”
Images by: Lawrence Tze June Chok
An exciting round for NZ Superlap competitors, the Manfeild Autocourse round is a single day event with an added test day beforehand, tacked onto the V 4&Rotary North Island Jamboree. A six hour trip down for Katherine Redward, it’s a round in which you want to go smoothly as you’re a very long way from home. Last year, Kat debuted her angry new setup and managed to lay down a 1:15.4-second lap time. With more power on the cards and some more seat time in the current setup, Kat was keen to see how she and the package would perform. Over to you, Kat!
“Round three of the Prowear NZ Superlap series brought us to Manfeild Autocourse alongside the V 4&Rotary North Island Jamboree is a 6.5-hour drive down to the friendly town of Feilding — made short by good banter and a stop in at Taihape to check out the Gumboot Festival.
While it is a long haul down for a one day event, Manfeild Autocourse is probably my favourite track in the North Island — so well worth it! The banked turns and flow through turn two to splash is just epic fun.
With a faulty oil pressure sensor ending our first session after only two laps – putting the ECU into limp mode – we hadn’t quite beaten last year’s PB of 1:15.4-seconds. Luckily, fellow Superlap competitor Chris Parker called in a favour and had a replacement oil pressure sensor to us just after lunch; only missing one session. Thanks, Chris and Keith!
Once my awesome team got the sensor back in and Dave checked everything was setup correctly via the laptop (legend!) we were back on track trying to drop times.
The third session was too hot to go much faster, but the final session of the day netted a time good enough to make the Top 10 shootout. Once the temps dropped and it was just that one final lap, I put it all on the line and just went for it, securing third place overall and second place in Pro Street with a 1:14.6-second lap time.
Thank you so much to my sponsors, crew and supporters. Bring on round 4 held at Pukekohe Park Raceway! “
Kat.