Nathan Collins is enjoying his best season in the Commodore Cup and is aiming for a top-three finish in 2008.By Stuart Teather
THE podium is finally within reach for Devon Meadows resident Nathan Collins as he enjoys his best season in the Commodore Cup racing championship.
Collins has been racing in the cup since 2004, but remained well off the pace until the 2008 season, during which he has had a string of good results culminating in a fifth overall placing at the Eastern Creek meet on the weekend.
Collins was ecstatic with the result, which was the best success his team had enjoyed in the division.
“I was rapt,” he said. “Overall (we went) pretty well. We had a lot of dramas with a gearbox failure but we fixed it up for the races.”
Not content with fifth, however, Collins said he had high expectations for the rest of the season.
“Going into Phillip Island we’re definitely aiming for a podium, that’d accomplish the goals for the first half of the season,” he said.
Those goals include a top-three finish in 2008, then claiming the title next year.
“Once we’ve achieved the goals in the Commodore Cup, looking at the end of 2009 we’ll look at where we go from there,” Collins said.
It has not all been smooth sailing for Collins, with car problems plaguing the first rounds of the season.
“We started pretty badly at Oran Park (round one), but it’s getting better – we just need to work on consistency,” he said.
“We had a pretty big accident at Phillip Island (round two).
“It caused some pretty big damage, and we’ve spent this best part of four weeks getting the car ready for Eastern Creek.
“The car came back (after the race) pretty straight for the first time this year, which is good.”
Collins made the move to car racing after a serious accident competing in motorcross ended a career spanning two decades and made him look for a different sport.
