Invercargill driver Liam MacDonald secured his fourth round win on the trot at Round 4 of the 2016/2017 BNT NZ Touring Car Championship at Teretonga Park near Invercargill this weekend.
MacDonald has won every round in the championship to date in his GT Radial NZ Falcon, winning the last seven races in a row, a sequence started at Taupo in December.
This weekend he qualified second fastest, just .033 of a second behind fellow Southlander Jamie Conroy and went on to win all three races in varying conditions.
MacDonald made a good start to the opening race on Saturday in dry conditions and took the lead early before a safety car period. When the race resumed he continued to lead all the way to the chequered flag.
Sunday was wet and in the first race of the day MacDonald came through from the reverse grid order to take the lead from Justin Ashwell late in the race to snare another win, this time from Conroy who followed him through. He backed it up in the afternoon race with another win to take his seventh victory from the nine races held so far.
“The GT Radial NZ Falcon was good in the dry,” he said as his team packed up on Sunday evening. “We didn’t have a quick car in the wet, it wasn’t balanced but we managed to keep consistent to take the round win.”
The next round of the championship takes place at Circuit Chris Amon in Feilding over the weekend of 11/12 February and MacDonald is looking forward to the challenge having never competed there before. “It looks like a really cool track,” he said and past experience has shown he can adapt to new circuits quickly.
MacDonald is tackling the 2016/2017 BNT NZ Touring Car Championship with the support of GT Radial NZ, Million Dollar Cruise Queenstown, Classic Car Warehouse Invercargill, Advanti Racing and YHI NZ, Ideal Electrical, BNT NZ, Auto Windscreen Replacement Ltd, Southern Bolts & Fasteners, Auto Fab, NAC Insurance, Speedy Signs Invercargill, Derek Orr Auto Refinisher, Southern Probuilt Engines, DAL Photographics, Discount Tyres Invercargill and Sport Scholarships with the Community Trust of Southland and the ILT Foundation.