HAMILTON 400 NEW ZEALAND RACEWRAP

Hi everybody. Apologies for the delay in getting my usually prompt race wrap to you all. Reason, an afternoon flight out of New Zealand on Monday and a good day out Tuesday for a refreshing ride on my KTM 450 that has been about 7 months in the making.

The organisers of the Hamilton 400 in New Zealand have put a new standout event on the V8 Supercar calendar. For a first up crack Hamilton was fantastic. I don’t mean just for the V8 Supercar Circus, but for the Kiwi fans of V8 Supercars as well. The facilities were terrific, the track was awesome and the Hamilton locals embraced it with friendly open arms. It’s almost like going to the Darwin round of the Championship, except its on steroids!! Of course the event has been a couple of years in the planning and in some ways I have been quite fortunate to have been involved from a drivers perspective in relation to the safety and design points of the circuit since 2006. Let me just say that the infrastructure and location of the circuit to the centre of town was always going to be one of the keys to the events success.

We arrived in NZ on the Wednesday around lunchtime and headed straight down to Hamilton where I was lucky enough to have a bit of a hit with some service managers at the local golf driving range with our friends from Castrol. They were all pumped with the Hamilton event and could not wait for the weekends activities. There was a fair bit on the line with a longest drive comp and nearest to the pin putting comp. I remained winless in both, but decided local knowledge played its part. This was followed by a dinner function where a few of Castrol’s customer Car Dealer Managers and Principles from around the Hamilton area attended with Frosty and I as guests. With no on track action until Friday, Thursday was also an opportunity to get out and about for some pre-event promotional activity. First up was a traditional Maori welcome to the region for the V8 Supercar Championship, followed by a track walk of the new Hamilton layout with the FPR engineers and a customer visit for Dewalt tools at the Hamilton Placemakers hardware store. It was also a great night Friday as I went to the Waikato Stadium located next to the main straight of the circuit to attend the Super 14 Rugby where the Chiefs were taking on the undefeated Crusaders. With an absolute sell-out the Home team produced an upset by defeating the Crusaders. The atmosphere was incredible and both teams were proudly supported by Ford. A great night either way the result went.

Practice...

Rain overnight on Thursday had left the circuit very damp for opening practice sessions for the support categories. The forecast was for some light showers on Friday and Saturday, clearing for a fine day on Sunday. Even though the track was a bit damp, it seemed as though from the vision that it had a reasonable amount of grip. With the first 30 minutes of qualifying only allowing the bottom 15 from last years Championship to practice, we sat anxiously waiting for our crack at the track. Initial vision showed that it was a lot bumpier in a couple of places than we anticipated, but the circuit looked really spectacular. Then it was our turn to hit the track. With 30 minutes to get used to the circuit before a 30 minute break, it didn’t give much opportunity to make big changes to the car. After the first couple of laps, it was reasonably clear that our setup would have to change a bit as the bumps were shaking my eyeballs in their sockets. After the first segment of practice had finished we made changes to the car, heading more along the lines of our baseline setup, which instantly proved to be much better. We finished the practice session in 6th position after fitting our second set of new Dunlop tyres. Frosty was 12th, but could not get a clear lap, so his pace was not reflective of position.

Qualifying...

After the session had finished we found that one of the front shock absorbers was bent, which may have had an impact on our practice performance. The only real issue with the circuit was the exit kerb on the RHS at the chicane. It was quite aggressive and causing some damage to some cars suspension if it was hit incorrectly. There were some revisions made on Friday night to that kerb. The organisers were flawless in their willingness to ensure everything was as perfect as possible. Saturday dawned very similar to Friday, with overnight rain dampening the circuit. Showers were expected throughout the day, but clearing for Sunday. As would be the case it was dry until about 30 minutes before the start of qualifying when showers blew across the circuit. The session started damp, but after a first lap observation on wet tyres it was clear that it would dry up pretty quickly, so at the end of the first lap we pitted for slick Dunlop’s. As the track dried and the Dunlop tyres gained heat, the times started to fall. On a good lap I drifted onto the wet line at one corner and ran wide losing valuable time as the rain came once again. At the time it was only good enough for 19th, but I knew the car was good enough for the front row in those conditions, so I wasn’t concerned. With about 7 minutes to go the showers had left the circuit and the track began to dry again. On the last lap we bounced back into the top 20 in 17th. From here on in the circuit was drying. We went out on slicks and set the 8th fastest time before the red flag was deployed due to the accident involving Jamie Whincup. At this time of the session times were falling lap by lap and it was a determining factor to be out on the track at the right time with the right tyre on. The session was not re started at this point and unfortunately meant that Frosty missed out in 13th. The final 10 cars left the pitlane after a delay of around 20 minutes to retrieve the Vodafone car. We went straight out on ‘green’ Dunlop’s and on our second flier set the fastest time. What a fantastic event to grab pole at!!

Race 1...

There was not a lot of time to celebrate the Pole position as race 1 was but a couple of hours away. A quick meeting to determine strategy along with a visit to some of Dunlop’s ‘kiwi’ customers in their corporate facility and it was down to race time very quickly. I made a good fist of it off the line to lead part way through the first lap and gain a small advantage, only to lose a couple of spots at turn 5 after a locked brake. The good thing though was that the car was fast and even after a slightly longer pitstop, we were able to pull back the gap to secure 3rd position albeit a little disappointed.

Race 2...

Race 2 on Sunday from third position again made a good getaway and we maintained a close proximity to Rick Kelly in 2nd place. The FPR boys ‘whacked’ out a dose of magic at our pitstop to vault us back up into 2nd position which was were we would finish race 2, not far from the back of Tander. Frosty meanwhile was making good in roads from his 13th starting position in race 1, moving forwards to grab some very good points finishing race 2 in 7th position.

Race 3...

On the outside of the front row for race 3 my start was poor. I went into the first corner in 3rd position. The tyres were quite slow coming up to temperature and I battled a bit until the pitstop on around lap 8. With new rear Dunlop tyres I was able to extract good speed and grip from the tyre and get a jump on James Courtney as he came back onto the circuit. We had made a couple of very small changes to the car to get a fraction more speed from the Castrol FPR Falcon, but may have gone a little backwards as it seemed to be more affected by the bumps in this race. We went on to finish the race in 2nd position and get 2nd for the round. Garth Tander was the winner from me and then James Courtney in third. Frosty drove a stellar race to finish in 5th position.

The event had been exceptional for Ford Performance Racing from a number of factors. After both cars achieved consistent results from the weekend, for the first time ever FPR now leads the Teams Championship. This is no mean feat considering the work that has occurred during the first 3 race meetings of the season and my own first pole position for the team since joining FPR in 07. Over the weekend I have moved from 15th in the Championship to 6th, which is a good place to be at this point, less than 200 points from the lead. The Hamilton event was a roaring success. Sunday was a sell-out, the organisers closing the gates at around 1 pm on Sunday and a three day crowd total of 170,000 people turning up for the inaugural race meeting.

Next up...

The Barbagallo round of the Championship is next on the agenda over West in WA. With a tight turnaround for the teams it could shape up to be critical one for the Championship.

See you at the track.

Richo.