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09-10-2008 Rapier wins championship
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The season ended on a high for the Volks Engineering team with the Rapier taking the spoils in the Qld State Championship over the weekend. In a close encounter that came down to the last race of the season to decide the championship, driver Paul Manteit needed to come from behind and win the race to take the championship.
Starting from the 2nd row of the grid, Manteit made a good start and followed Nick Herford and Tim Hamilton for the first lap before making a move on Herford into Gumtree corner. This gave the opportunity to battle for the lead over the remaining 9 laps to see which driver would be crowned state champion. In a very calculated race, Manteit waited until lap 7 to make his move when lap traffic held up leader Hamilton for just a split second allowing a move to be made. Hamilton went defensive into Gumtree, but this didn't seem to deter Manteit as he made a pass on the outside for the lead of the race. From then on it was a charge to the line, and it appeared as though nothing short of a natural disaster would stop Manteit from winning the race. Manteit crossed the line on lap 10 to take the win and the state championship, much to the joy of the Volks Engineering Team who were cheering from the hill.
After the race Manteit said "This has been a fantastic year, the car performed faultlessly this weekend and we've hardly had a drama all year, with only a few little niggles. For a brand new car at the start of the year with suspension configurations that have never been tried before, we really didn't have any data to go off, but it performed brilliantly. We never had any mechanical failures all year which is a true testament to John Alder for building such a perfect race car."
Season Summary: 8x1st, 6x2nd, 1x3rd, 3xpole, 9xfastest lap
A big thank you must go out to Scott Andrew (car owner) who so generously stepped aside for the year while the car was developed and dialled in.
For more information, please see www.volksengineering.com