Trengove Strong at Winton

Another consistent performance sees Trengove move closer to the top of the Australian Holden Driver’s Championship, in his quest to win the Australian Gold Star Award.

Round 4 of the Championship took place at Winton, Victoria on the 3^rd August. The team traveled nearly 10 hours to arrive at the circuit Thursday evening, to setup and prepare for first practice on Friday.

Temperatures were down to -3 degrees over night and in the morning, track temperature and grip was low. The Formula 4000 cars were first on to the track and the times were quite slow due to the ‘green’ track. Trengove was only 4^th in first practice, but was struggling with a lot of understeer. This was due to a ‘safe’ car setup but also because Paul was on practice tyres that he had been using since the 2^nd Round.

Second Practice and the CPA Australia team decided to put on the tyres they were going to race with. Due to budget constraints, the team was not going to purchase new tyres for the race weekend and instead, would run on the same tyres that they used at Phillip Island. Although the team knew this would be a disadvantage for the weekend, they were left with no choice. Times improved dramatically across the field, with Trengove posting a time that saw him 2^nd quickest during the session. Paul still complained of understeer and low grip through some sections of the circuit and changes were made for the qualifying.

Qualifying was held in dry conditions on Saturday, with a lot more track grip due to the V8 Supercars completing their first practice sessions in the morning. Some other teams had some mechanical problems on Friday and were also keen to improve their times. The CPA Australia Team began the session well, going 2^nd quickest early on in the session. However, Trengove was only able to complete 4 fast laps before pulling into the pits with the car running on only 5 cylinders. The team worked hard to get the engine cover off to diagnose and fix the problem. Within 5 minutes the car was back out on to the track. With only 4 minutes remaining Paul was now 4^th and needed to improve to move up the grid. His first lap was a warm up and then Trengove was faster than his previous lap through the first section of the track. However, halfway around the circuit, Ricky Occhipinti spun in front of Paul, causing him to slow through the yellow flag section.

With that lap ruined, Paul brought the 95D Reynard up to speed again to begin his final qualifying lap. Again he was faster through the first sections of the track, but unfortunately the marshals had not moved the stricken car of Occhipinti’s and continued to wave Yellow flags, meaning Paul had to slow again. Trengove continued on and was able to go quicker than his previous time, even having to slow through the caution area. Paul.’s final time was a 1:17.46, only 1.6 seconds off the pole time. Unfortunately the team remained 4^th, but knew they had more speed for the race.

Sunday saw beautiful conditions again, with the track having much more grip than before. The cars gridded up at around Midday and at the start it was Jonny Reid, who had set the quickest time in qualifying, getting away best off the start line. Occhipinti was slow away and this saw both Nelson Hartley, Paul Trengove and Daniel Gaunt slip through into 2^nd ,3^rd and 4^th. For the first lap the front 5 were very close. Through the last turn at the end of lap 1 Paul was baulked by Hartley and had a slow run onto the straight allowing Gaunt to slip through into 3^rd. Only a few moments later Gaunt forced his way into 2^nd position and was now chasing Reid.

Trengove then saw his opportunity to take 3^rd place and moved up the inside of Hartley. Occhipinti was following closely and also passed Hartley, who was now facing engine trouble. Occhipinti could not maintain the pace of Trengove and gradually slipped behind. Soon after he had a moment through the 180kph lefthand sweeper. He slipped further behind and was then in a battle with ex V8 Supercar driver Darren Hossack.

The positions remained with Jonny Reid taking his first win since Round 1, followed by Gaunt and Trengove.

Race 2 saw Jonny Reid again move into the lead with Gaunt close behind followed by Trengove in 3^rd.  However Gaunt’s engine started to blow massive amounts of smoke making it impossible for Trengove to see ahead, forcing him to slow. This allowed Jonny Reid to build a gap as Paul battled his was past Gaunt whose engine troubles began to look terminal. Into 2^nd place and Trengove battled hard to catch Reid. The gap slowly closed, until Reid was able to maintain his speed and drive home to the finish. Trengove running close behind in second began to have fuel pressure problems and at times would push the accelerator with no response. With 3 laps to go it was worrying times for the CPA Australia team, but they battled on to finish 2^nd in Race 2 and to finish 2^nd Overall for Round 4.

The final results saw Jonny Reid take the Round Win, followed by Trengove in 2^nd and Ricky Occipinti in 3^rd. Nelson Hartley, the current Championship leader failed to finish both races which makes the Championship very achievable for the top 5 drivers.

Round 5 heads to Paul’s home track of Mallala, where the team is hoping to secure its first race victories and to possibly move into the lead of the championship for the final Round. The event is part of the Konica V8 Supercar series. Support Paul on the 31^st of August at Mallala Raceway,  as the South Australian chases his dream of winning the Gold Star Award.

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