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 With
the NZ V8 Touring Car Championship being the most competitive
it has been for years, TKR are working to a strategy
in their attempt to win this years hard fought NZ V8
Touring Car Championship.
Rather than straight out wins, TKR used the Pukekohe
meeting to reduce some of the "reward ballast weight"
the car was carrying which was a considerable 45kgs.
The need to reduce the "reward ballast weight"
was due to this additional weight affecting the cars
straight line speed and braking capabilities, especially
with the next round of the NZ V8 Touring Car Championship
being held at the tight and short Centennial Park Raceway
in Taupo.
The nature of the Taupo circuit will see any car carrying
additional "reward ballast weight" struggle
to show the true potential of the car and driver package
at the Taupo circuit.
In race one at Pukekohe Park raceway Booth drove a
calculated race to finish in seventh position instead
of pushing the TKR car into the top five which would
have seen the 021 car be given additional ballast weight
for finishing in first, second, third or fourth position.
Fifth position would have seen the car retain the same
level of weight being 45kgs.
The seventh placing in race one saw 20kgs removed from
the 021 TKR car. Race two saw the same strategy used
to get ride of further reward ballast weight without
reducing the teams Championship points lead.
Booth finished race two in seventh place and had a
further 20kgs removed from the car taking the "reward
ballast weight" back to 5kgs going into the third
and final race for the weekend.
Race three saw Booth finish second behind Paul Radisich
which saw the weekends strategy fall into place.
The end result being that Booth has retained his lead
in the NZ V8 Touring Car Championship with a very mature
drive and the 021 TKR car now has 20kgs "reward
ballast weight" with a lead of 67 points in the
Championship.
"We sacrificed 3 Championship points for a reduction
of 25Kgs weight"
"I think that is a great deal considering that
with 45 kgs I was struggling to stop at the end of the
back straight by half way through each race and I was
getting passed by other cars down the straight almost
every other lap, as the extra ballast weight was effecting
our straight-line speed as well"
Nick Ross on the other hand had a weekend he would
rather forget.
After qualifying in 16th position after spearing off
the circuit in qualifying things never got much better
over the weekend with the exception of the occasional
glimpses of his true ability.
Race one saw Ross move quickly up from 16th to be running
in the top 10 before being turned around by the Caltex
Havoline car of Craig Boote. This saw Ross rejoin the
36 car gird at the rear of the field having to fight
his way back from 36th to 21st position by the end of
the 10 lap race.
Race two saw Ross start from 21st position and by lap
three he was already back up inside the top 10 to eventually
finish the second race in 12th position.
Race three saw Ross start from 16th on the grid quickly
moving up into the top 10 again before a coming to gather
with Michael Thom in the Hydraulink car with two laps
to go.
The end result saw the 777 TKR car stranded on the
side of the track with a broken steering rack.
"I never want to have a weekend like that again"
"I just could not do anything right and I have
now got a lot of hard work ahead of me to get back into
the top four of the Championship"
Ross has dropped back to 7th in the Championship but
is only 2 points behind sixth position, six points behind
fifth position and is still within reach of fourth position
this year.
Booth is currently in first position, 67 points ahead
of second position and 76 points ahead of third position.
HPC is proud to be a sponsor of Team Kiwi Racing, and
assist in TKR's assault on the New Zealand V8 series
as well as the V8 Supercars.
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