Castrol BMW Race Driver Series scholarship recipient Jordan Baldwin of Howick is becoming a regular top-three placer in the 64-car series, to rapidly climb the points standings ahead of the season 2016/2017 final race weekend.
At the series sixth and penultimate round held recently at Pukekohe, he started the weekend setting second fastest time in qualifying. This builds on his best result of second overall at the previous Taupo event.
Driving an E30 model car against 28 other teams in his group, the class is one of three that make up the travelling BMW series.
Having done just over a year in karting and with speedway experience, Baldwin arrived to the BMW saloon car series fresh to learn. The personable and articulate 18-year-old won the car-supplied prize to contest the current season – and is a stone’s throw from toppling series rookie Scott McCaskie for the coveted title.
Taking his currently best race result of second during the opening round, Baldwin took the highs with the lows as he learned more about the craft of racing and the car. Storming back to the podium at the Pukekohe event, his third placing came from learned experience.
“In qualifying, back in karts, I used to struggle by putting so much pressure on myself – trying too hard to put a good lap in. My main goal this year was to relax and treat it as a practice session – focus on staying calm,” explained Baldwin of his shift in style.
“I knew we had good speed after the Taupo round so I wanted to treat Pukekohe’s qualifying like another practice session, and keep a cool head – just see what we could get. To see it was position two (second fastest) on a track I’d never raced before was pretty amazing.
“In the race consistency is so crucial to being up the front – as I’m finding at the moment. The guys up the front have been doing this for a while so it’s great to be with them.”
While it is Baldwin’s first foray in to car racing, he is joined by his dad – also competing in the E30 category as a rookie: “We are learning so much and are surrounded by so many good people along the way. People like Pete and Graham (Ball) from P+S Automotive. They are confident we can have a shot at the championship – next season. That includes sponsors who want to back me so we can have a good crack at it.
For now, Baldwin is focussed on the rookie title that McCaskie has a hold of: “We’ve caught up enough points to Scott McCaskie that it will go down to the wire at the final. My main goal is to just get that title.”
Defending champion Matt Griffin took the round win, ahead of Royce Rollinson and Matthew Seddon. Baldwin finished fourth, 10 points behind Seddon.
In the 2L class, 23 of the teams were wondering what previous round lap record setter Graham Ball could achieve next. Second fastest in qualifying, well over a second behind his father and defending champion Peter, Graham took the opening race win. While Andrew Sharp won the remaining two races it was consistency by Marty Seddon in his 318i that put him atop the weekend results – by one point.
A similar result came from the Open Class. Incorporating three sub-classes, the 12-car line-up was headed by Group A driver Andrew Nugent (Auckland) in the E92 M3 GT2 specification car. Fastest in qualifying the first two race wins went to Matakana’s Andre Mortimer. The final race win went to Robert Berggren with consistency rewarding Nugent, who took the overall win – by two points.
Marty Irvine topped the Group B field with three consecutive race wins while Nigel Patterson’s consistency in the Group C field will assist him to the season title.
The series final round is split between two events with the E30 and 2L category final at the Hampton Downs Legends of Speed 25-26 March. The Open Class final will be held back at Pukekohe 31 March 2017. The final race for the season will be the one-hour enduro, being held at Hampton Downs 6-7 May.
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