Wellington Touring Car driver Brock Cooley put the seal on a successful season with another round win at the finale of the BNT NZ Touring Car Series at Pukekohe Park Raceway, south of Auckland last weekend. Cooley had already won the title prior to the final round but made a real statement by taking another round win, his fourth of the series.
After sealing the title at the penultimate round at Manfeild in February Cooley said that he wanted end the championship on a high and win the final round, something he had not done previously at Pukekohe, and he did just that. It was another great performance by Cooley as he powered the Speedy Signs Falcon to the fastest time in qualifying to take pole position before winning the first race of the weekend on Saturday afternoon. He backed that up with second place in a wet race on Sunday morning.
The conditions deteriorated further for the final race on Sunday afternoon and the race was stopped after just two laps with Brock in the lead. That brought down the curtain on the championship, Cooley ending the season with 1407 points, 242 clear of Brad Lathrope of Auckland who took his debut race win at the final round. Over the course of the season Cooley won four of the seven rounds and after taking his debut race win at the opening round at Taupo added nine further race wins to take victory in ten of the twenty-one races in the series. Cooley also won the overall title, scoring the most points out of both the Class 1 and Class 2 cars, a battle that went down to the final race.
“It was the kind of season you dream about,” said Cooley as he reflected on his achievements after the final race. “It is also the result of a tremendous amount of hard work over the last 3 years and that all started to sink in over the weekend.”
Motorsport is very much a team effort and as he has been quick to point out throughout his successful season Brock again acknowledged his sponsors, team, family and supporters. He also congratulated Lathrope on his debut win on Sunday morning.
Cooley is yet to decide his motor racing future but would dearly love to return to defend the title next year while the lure of a Class 1 car is also strong.
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