Photo: Simon Sceats battling with Scott McKelvie in the opening race

Forza3 Racing driver Simon Sceats has reinforced his status as the man to beat in the 2009/10 Production Racing Series, taking two race wins at Timaru’s Levels Raceway over the weekend to claim his third straight round victory in the Forza3 Racing Subaru Impreza WRX.

In doing so, the former series champion has moved into second place in the Class E points standings behind the Mitsubishi Evo 9 of Scott McKelvie, overtaking Grant Aitken who led the points prior to the Timaru race weekend.

For the Forza3 Racing Team, it certainly has proven to be a significant turnaround since the opening round at Pukekohe in November, where the Impreza suffered intercooler problems in qualifying and a broken exhaust in the second race leaving Sceats languishing in fifth place overall, ninety points off Aitken’s Mitsubishi Evo.

Fast-forward to the fourth round at Levels, and claiming his second Production Racing Series title is looking like a strong possibility for Sceats, with only thirteen points separating he and McKelvie with two events remaining.

Sceats was strong from the outset at Timaru, posting the fastest times in both Official Practice sessions on Friday and thriving when the rain arrived for Saturday morning’s qualifying session.




With new tar seal in numerous high speed sections of the Timaru track, conditions proved slippery and treacherous in the wet conditions. Sceats circulated for the majority of the session searching for clear track and a break in the rain, which he found allowing him to gain pole position by 2/100ths of a second from McKelvie.

On a dry track for the opening race, Sceats led the field away and controlled his position thereafter, taking the race victory comfortably to start from pole position again for the second race.

With the rain returning for Sunday Sceats played it safe in damp conditions for race two, driving “with plenty of caution” to ensure no mistakes were made en route to his second win of the weekend.

With the rain continuing to see-saw between wet and dry late in the day, the Forza3 Racing Team again found a strong setup for the Impreza allowing Sceats to make ground on his competitors early in the full reverse-grid final race.

Starting from the rear of the field, Sceats passed the majority of his opponents, with the only blemish being a small error heading into one of the circuits many sweeping loops, allowing McKelvie to take advantage and win the race.

Two first placings and a second gave Sceats the round win, and concluded another strong weekend for the team in moving up into second overall in the points standings.

”This was another great weekend for the team where our pace and strategy paid off in a big way,” Sceats commented after the final race of the weekend.



“The Forza3 Impreza drove like a dream all weekend, right from Friday through to Sunday. I felt we were on for three-from-three here in Timaru – it hasn’t been done in quite a while – but unfortunately I made an error in the last race which meant Scott [McKelvie] got through and took a deserved win.”

“He [McKelvie] pressured me all weekend and has really good pace. I look forward to battling with he and Grant Aitken for the title at Manfeild and Taupo.”

With the Southern leg of the 2009/10 Production Racing Series now over, the championship heads to Manfeild Autocourse in Feilding on the weekend of February 13 and 14.