Young driver overcomes problematic weekend with great maturity
Young racing driver Shahaan Engineer continued his rapid learning curve during the second event of the 2012 Toyota Racing Series at Timaru in New Zealand last weekend, 21st/22nd January – although three incident-filled races didn’t deliver the sort of results he proved he was capable of during round one a week ago.
During the opening practice session, the 16-year-old started the second weekend well by posting the eighth quickest time to indicate a pace consistent with the sixth place ‘feature race’ finish achieved at Teretonga Park in the season opener. In the all-important Timaru qualifying session though, Shahaan endured a sticking throttle cable which put him out of contention for a good lap time.
“I knew I couldn’t do much with the throttle problems but any lap time I could set was better than nothing”, he explained, “So I stayed out to do the best possible in the circumstances but was forced to retire halfway through the session.” He eventually ended the session in an uncharacteristic 14th place.
In race one on Saturday, the first-year driver made an excellent getaway but had to take avoiding action immediately due to a stalled car ahead losing valuable positions; he eventually finished in 11th position. For the Timaru Herald Trophy ‘feature race’ on Sunday, He was confident of a much-improved run but his start was foiled by a two car accident in front of him on the wet grid.
Facing a situation where the entire front wing from the incident ahead got lodged in the front wing on his own car, he lost several places as he dragged it along and attempted to shake it free at a crawling speed. He ultimately ended up with a 12th place result.
Starting the final race from the seventh row of the grid, by virtue of his finishing position in race two, he had another fantastic launch off the line and passed several cars in the first lap, but later spun out of contention while pushing incredibly hard. He said: “After my qualifying and other race issues I was anxious to get in front and I did, but I pushed the car too hard and locked-up.”
Managing to get back onto the circuit, having lost half a minute to the rest of the pack, he eventually finished in 16th position. “All my starts were great this weekend”, added the young driver, “We just had some incidents that were not of my own doing, except my spin in the last race. It’s been a great learning experience and we can have a strong run in Taupo next weekend.”
