Пресс-релиз - First win for Steve Peters in Bulawayo!

First win for Steve Peters in Bulawayo!

Steve Peters and his Brisbane-based team Blue Goat Racing were celebrating last night after the 19-year old's maiden victory in yesterday's 25-lap rookie event at Zimbabwe's Breedon Everard Raceway. The race itself was an exciting event for spectators with frequent changes of lead, a number of clashes and off-track excursions at the front of the pack, and the leader either coming off or retiring with mechanical failure on three separate occasions.

While jubilant at his first win, Peters was the first to admit that he benefited from the misfortunes of others in the fast and eventful race. "I was lucky not to get caught up myself when Rossi and DiTempo clashed right in front of me on lap 3, but I did move up from 5th to 3rd as a result , and the safety car period stopped Wong and Felipe from opening up much of a gap. Then, straight after the safety car went back in Felipe passed Wong for first but came off and lost a lot of time almost immediately after - this set me up for a good fight with Wong that went back and forth for the next few laps, but Cooper (who had started 14th) came out of nowhere past us both into the lead."

Up until the last few laps Peters was looking at third at best until Cooper spun out of the race while almost 5 seconds ahead of Wong, then with two laps to go Wong retired with gearbox failure. This left Peters in the lead again - this time from from hard-charging Finn Vongsakorn Aulvong, who halved the gap to Peters in the final laps. At the checkered flag Peters was just over 1.2 seconds clear from Aulvong, with Hungarian Sakaroli Lippai a further 5 seconds adrift in third.

While starting from pole for the next rookie race at Bulawayo is a great advantage, and Peters hopes his experience here stands him in good stead when the Africa Cup XXXV visits Bulawayo next, he isn't taking anything for granted. "Sure, in the rookie races we are starting to see the same drivers around the front of the pack and on the podium, but there are always some impressive charges from the back and with so many young, keen drivers trying to get noticed - and just throwing themselves into their racing - something exciting and unexpected is always going to happen in this series. Keep watching or you will miss it!"