14/01/2026
Oh well all good things come to a end so back to 33i we go.
It's been a great year and honour repping the 3nz on the door and getting around as many tracks as we could.
Congratulations to the new 1nz Paul Leslie, 2nz Matt Peterson and 3nz Jono Garthley you guys done extremely well in very hard conditions.
Sadly I knew I would struggle on a track that was running super saloons and superstocks resulting in a very slick track with very little drive but we all had the same conditions to contend with.
Qualifying was always going to be hard as looking at our group my thoughts were there was 10 odd drivers that should make the finals but only 6 can go through.
First qual heat we drew unlucky 13 and made it up to 6th
2nd qual heat off grid 5 and took the win being first checkered flag at Nelson and final heat grid 11 and followed booney round for 4th giving us 2nd on points and through to the finals on Saturday Night.
Grid draw on saturday was horrible being 5-18-18 on a very slick small dusty track making passing very hard.
Heat 1 off grid 5 got big shunt in turn 2 bouncing off the wall to loose 5 to 6 placings but we managed to claw back some spots finishing 6th, 2nd heat off grid 18 we ended up being hung out wide and going into turn 3 managed to miss a car up against the wall only to be involved with a head on mid corner with 7n resulting in loosing clutch and damaging myself so a DNF, heat 3 due to a damaged sternum and being very sore I decided to not go out and became a spectator.
We came home monday and will not be at the gp to give myself a few weeks to come right but on a good note the car is ok and very little damage.
I would like to thank my sponsors:
RAGE
STEVES AUTOS
SHUTTLEWORTH MOTORSPORT MEDIA
WINIATA CUSTOMS
Also my pitcrew that follow me around nz on these crazy trips:
Jono
Scott
Dylan
Hunter
Tiff the boss
and all others who help out at different times.
Next year we will be off to Gisborne chasing one of those little numbers again as long as the body allows.
Cheers Steve Dryden 33i ex 3nzi
