SILSDEN'S Frankie Wainman Junior captained Great Britain Lions to their second successive runners-up spot in the ENZED New Zealand Superstock Teams Championships.

The Team GB Racing line-up were bidding to become the first overseas team to win the event but were pipped in the final against the Hawkes Bay Hawkeyes.

Yet there was some consolation for Wainman Jnr, who raced with some outstanding blocking and attacking driving to win the Warrior of the Weekend award for the most entertaining driver of the two-day meeting.

Having topped their three-team group on Saturday at the Robertson Holden International Speedway in Palmerston North, the five-car Lions outfit – led by BriSCA F1 world champion Wainman Jnr, Lee Fairhurst, John Dowson, Ben Hurdman and Bob Griffin – faced the Gisborne Giants and fellow BriSCA F1 star Tom Harris in an eagerly-awaited semi-final.

The Lions put in a master-class of team racing to demolish the threat of the Giants, with Ben Hurdman going on to win comfortably after main Gisborne threat Peter Rees was forced to pull out in the closing stages.

The victory set up a clash with the Hawkeyes, who beat championship favourites Palmerston North Panthers in their semi-final, in a repeat of the final of 12 months ago.

In a brutal 15-lap final, the Hawkeyes focused on trying to neutralise the threat of Wainman Jnr from the outset and were successful in causing enough damage to hinder his progress, badly damaging a rear wheel. Despite the setback, Fairhurst took over the lead in the early stages for the Lions.

With hits flying in from all round the track, Hawkes Bay blocked Fairhurst to allow Thomas Stanaway to go to the front. The New Zealander then stretched his lead to more than a lap of the quarter-mile oval.

The writing was on the wall for the Lions when Wainman Jnr's car, with smoke and sparks flying from his damaged vehicle, suffered a fuel-pump problem for the second year in a row and ground to a halt.

The only hope for a Team GB victory in the winner-takes-all event was if Fairhurst could catch the runaway leader. However, victory was all but lost when the Bolton driver was pinned up against the wall with two laps to go.

The red flags came out and on the restart, with only Hurdman and a hobbling Bob Griffin car still left running for Team GB way down the field, the Hawkeyes took the flag and the championship for a second successive year.

It was a hard defeat to take for the Lions – particularly for Wainman Jnr, who, along with the rest of the team, had left nothing out on the track.

"Obviously the lads are feeling it after that," said Wainman Jnr. "But we have to look on the positive side. We will come back next year more determined than ever to win it."