HAZELWOOD RUES MISSED CHANCE

Todd Hazelwood was very satisfied with fourth position in the final race of the Townsville doubleheader, despite power steering problems potentially robbing him of an even better result.

The South Australian driver was just under 7s off the race winner Cameron Waters, after showing promising starts so far this season Hazelwood managed to convert today.

In both races the Brad Jones Racing driver finished in the top five, and fourth in the final encounter was his season-best.

The man who sits 14th in the standings admitted he just gave his all.

“There was nothing to lose being where I am in the championship,” said Hazelwood.

“Those guys are vulnerable, and we were in a really good position, had good tyres and just tried to make the most of the opportunity, threw everything at it.

“It was so close, so frustrating but at the same time, super happy to get fourth, get some good points.”

Championship leader Shane Van Gisbergen and Will Davison were the other drivers to beat the #14 Holden Commodore to the line.

With the power steering niggles Hazelwood was just off the pace of the leading trio, despite his efforts to crack into the top positions.

“When you’re at the pointy end of the field, you can’t just relax and expect everyone to be nice because they’re the best in the game, you’ve got to give it everything you’ve got” he said.

“We had a little bit of a drama there, I was fighting a bit of power steering inconsistency, it was getting really heavy in the middle of the corner.

“That started happening about lap 6 or 7 so I was happy that it did not kill our race.

Just towards the end of the race, I lost a lot of bar scope and those front guys got away so it’s frustrating to see them just edge away but at least we were there and in the mix.”

The 25-year-old outperformed his teammates Nick Percat, Macauley Jones. Former Bathurst 1000 winner Percat placed tenth, Smith 21st, while Jones failed to finish the race after counting the Turn 10 wall.

Hazelwood finished ninth in the race on Saturday before improving to fifth in Race 18.

He went on to qualify fifth for the final race of the weekend, showing notable consistency across the two days of competition.

With a handy points haul in the bag, Hazelwood and BJR will prepare for the next event, the Ipswich SuperSprint.

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