A successful blend of speed, consistency and commitment enabled Dunedin's Steve Ross to claim his third NZ F5000 Tasman Cup Revival title at the New Zealand Grand Prix meeting at Feilding's Manfeild circuit at the weekend.
After completing all six rounds during which he was rarely off the podium, he added this year's trophy to those he won in 2011-12 and 2012-13 with a final score of 764 points.
It was a whopping 271 more than Blenheim's Russell Greer in his Lola T332 (493) and 335 more than third-placed Greg Thornton, of the United Kingdom, in his freshly-rebuilt Surtees TS11.
Ross and Christchurch-based company Motorsport Solutions, which has run his McRae GM1 for the past five seasons, had winning as their objective this season.
''We set out to do it and we did it,'' he said.
''We've always raced to win championships,'' the New Zealand Pre-65, Osca and TranZam class title holder added.
Ross' only regret was not being able to topple super veteran 73-year-old Ken Smith (Lola T332) off his race-winning streak that has resulted in his winning every one of the nine F5000 races he contested this season.
''In an ideal world you win races, too, but Kenny's a hard fellow to beat anywhere and, when he's on his favourite circuit [Manfeild], he was obviously hot to trot, but you know, we gave it a good go,'' Ross said.
A three-time winner of the New Zealand Grand Prix himself, Smith arrived at the meeting keen to further lower the F5000 category lap record of 1min 01.770sec he set two years ago.
He and Ross both lapped under it in qualifying on Saturday morning but only Smith was able to beat it in a race, winning the second eight-lapper on Sunday morning with a best lap time of 1min 01.629sec.
Ross will now enjoy some club racing around the South Island before taking his McRae to the annual Monterey Reunion historic and classic motor racing meeting at Laguna Seca, in California, in August.
