Dallas confident of Sport Cup prospects

Heading into the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup at Levels, Aucklander Ben Dallas will be keeping the acid on series leader William Bamber.

Dallas, a 19-year-old snow sports equipment salesman, is within 36 points of the lead after a close round victory at Teretonga in the weekend.

He is confident about his prospects when he hits the tarmac at the Timaru International Motor Raceway in Timaru this weekend.

He finished third in the Swift Sport Cup Championship last season and won the Castrol Suzuki Scholarship in 2008.

Bamber, a promising 16-year-old Wanganui High School student, won two of the three qualifying races on the Southland circuit of Teretonga, but his luck ran out in the third race and he finished second overall for the day.

He set the fastest practice time of 1min 12.783sec, less than half a second faster than Dallas. Alan Dunkley, 20, was third, with 18-year-old Wanganui racer Matt Gibson fourth.

A mere 1.16 seconds separated the top 10 cars, a clear indication of the close matching of the production-based Swifts.

In the first race, Bamber stormed to a 5.7 second victory over Taupo driver Craig Innes, Dallas and Gibson, with the winner setting the fastest lap of 1m 12.466s. The cars ran tightly bunched in the second race. Bamber crossed the line just ahead of Dallas while Gibson, third, was almost as close.

The first two races were textbook material, according to Dallas, but the reverse grid race three produced some upsets. Bamber and Gibson had a coming together and while William finished sixth on the road, a time penalty relegated him to 11th, with Gibson 12th.

Dunkley had the hard luck story of the meeting. After an engine change on site at the circuit, he crashed heavily in the third race but escaped unhurt.

Christchurch driver Cody McMaster, a two times winner of the Swift Sport Cup Championship, was unable to compete at the Invercargill meeting due to recovering from recent surgery.

Dallas amassed 202 points at Teretonga, and a total of 565 for the three rounds.

Bamber is on 601 after scoring 180 points in round three.

Harrison finished third overall and is lying fifth in the season on 386 – just one point less than the unfortunate Dunkley. Gibson was fourth overall at Teretonga and is third in the championship while Lawrence is running fifth.

- Herald correspondent

- © Fairfax NZ News