Despite a challenging week off the track, Timaru racing driver Corban Sprague is still holding on to a top spot in the Toyota TR86 Trophy Series.
Sprague, who is second on the leaderboard, was struck down with illness just before round three earlier this month.
But he buckled in and battled away at Manfeild in an effort to secure much-needed series points.
After qualifying fifth, he went on to pick up fourth place in race one and two and then sixth place in race three.
It was very much a character-building weekend, he said.
‘‘It was a struggle — it was a very challenging weekend. I got sick on the Monday leading up to the event and I did all I could to try and recover from it but I just got worse and worse.
‘‘I got up to Manfeild and was sort of feeling all right but as soon as I got in the car and got the belts on I just felt really sick.
‘‘With the compression of the belts and all the heat inside the car, I just couldn’t concentrate and really struggled.
‘‘There were still some consistent results and I’ve held on to second place in the trophy series championship, which is important for us. There’s quite a big prize for the top three.
‘‘It obviously wasn’t what I was after again but we still picked up some good points.’’
Despite the illness, he said he still enjoyed getting to race at Manfeild.
‘‘It’s a really enjoyable track. There’s so much camber and stuff at the circuit. Not many others in New Zealand are like that; it adds a bit of character to the way you drive.’’
Following round three Sprague spent last week in Dunedin after being selected as one of eight promising young drivers to take part in MotorSport New Zealand’s Elite MotorSport Academy camp.
He spent the week learning a lot about the many other facets that go into being a motorsport athlete, outside of just driving.
‘‘You’ve got media, public speaking, nutrition, strength and conditioning and all that other stuff that’s involved in the sport.
‘‘I managed to get third overall for the week which is cool but for me I took a lot more out of the learnings.
‘‘I learnt plenty and I’m going to put all of that not just into my racing going forward but life in general.
‘‘There’s so much more than just driving to the sport.’’
The final round of the trophy series will be at Taupō International Motorsport Park on July 26-27.
‘‘I’ve got a lot of video and data to study. I know where to find the time there and it will just be about executing.
‘‘Having raced there will be a massive help. I think I was probably the only one that hadn’t raced at that track before, so it’s definitely better for the confidence heading to a track I’ve raced at in this car.’’
While it would be a long shot for Sprague to take top spot, he said he will be going in to the final round thinking anything could happen.
‘‘The person who is leading [Lee Zeltwanger] would need to have quite a bad weekend for me to take the No 1 spot.
‘‘We’ve also got a 25-lap endurance race at the end of the last round which is worth double points. That could open a big can of worms.’’
