speedstuff.co.nz event guide: v8supertourers round three

WE INTERVIEWV8 SUPERTOURER CEO

PAUL

EVENT GUIDE2012 V8 SUPERTOURERS - ROUND 3 - MANFIELD

HE’S BACK!IS HE STILL IN THE TITLE HUNT?

TEAM PROFILE:AV8 MOTORSPORT

TECH TALK:JASON LIEFTINGRADISICH

EVENT GUIDE

SPEEDSTUFF EVENT GUIDE: Round 3, Manfeild, 27th-28th April.

V8SuperTourers, barring the expected teething problems has passed it’s initial tests with flying colours - the public have voted with their feet delivering record crowds in the process.

This, coupled with good racing on the whole would lead both the organisation and the teams to feel reasonably optimistic that the trend will continue.

However it is now no longer a novelty and needs to stand up on it’s own two feet without the hype that has surrounded the first two events.

As V8SuperTourers moves back to the North Island for the second time, it should give us a clearer indication whether hype alone has carried it thus far or genuine interest in a category that delivers stars driving fast cars. We think it will be the latter.

Enjoy our second ever Event Guide as we endeavour to take you behind the scenes and closer to the action.

Speedstuff.co.nz

Page 3 SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: Your guide to the weekend ahead

Page 5 FEATURE PIC: Fabian leads the field

Page 6 INTERVIEW: Paul Radisich, V8SuperTourer CEO

Page 8 RECAP: Round two, Ruapuna

Page 12 POINTS TABLE: Championship positions after round two

Page 14 FEATURE PIC: John McIntyre celebrates on the podium

Page 16 TRACK WALK: Manfeild Autocourse

Page 18 TECH SECTION: Setting up a V8Supertourer for Manfeild

0 FEATURE PIC: Cracker Woody

Page 23 TEAM PROFILE: AV8 Motorsport

Page 26 FEATURE PIC: International Motorsport’s 21st century pitcrew

Page 28 NEWS IN BRIEF: Catch all the news from between rounds

Page 31 SUPPORT CLASSES: The V8 Challenge Cup continues at Manfeild

Page 32 FEATURE PIC: Bairdo focusses on the weekend ahead

Page 34 DRIVER PROFILES: Some things you might not know about the drivers

INTRO V8SUPERTOURERS FUTURE LOOKS BRIGHT By Speedstuff

The Speedstuff Event Guide is written and published by Speedstuff (NZ). Additional text supplied by V8SuperTourers, Jason Leift-ing and Paul Manuell. Design and photography (except where noted) by Andrew Bright/Championship Digital. Cover by Keiran Grainger. This publication is Copyright 2012 Speedstuff (NZ). All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored or transmitted without permission of the publisher. We accept no liability for omissions or errors contained in this guide.

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Friday 27th April

09:15 Support Categories practice

11:00 Meet the drivers and cars - The Square, Palmerston North (2 hours)

12:00 Driver Signing Session - The Square, Palmerston North (1 hour)

12:20 Lunch break

13:00 Support Categories practice

15:00 V8 SUPERTOURER practice

Saturday 28th April

09:00 Support Categories Qualifying

09:55 V8 SUPERTOURER practice

11:05 Support Categories Qualifying

12:00 Lunch break

12:10 Driver Signing Session – Public Pit Lane Walk (30 Minutes)

12:45 Support Categories Races

13:30 V8 SUPERTOURER Qualifying


15:30 V8 SUPERTOURER Preliminary Race 1 (20 laps)

Sunday 29th April

09:20 V8 Challenge Cup Scholarship winner test


11:26 V8 SUPERTOURER Grid Walk (10 Minutes)

11:40 V8SUPERTOURER Preliminary Race Two (25 laps)

12:15 Lunch break

12:40 Driver Signing Session - Public Pit Lane Walk (20 Minutes)

13:00 Support Category Races

14:21 V8 SUPERTOURER Pre-Race Grid Walk 20 Minutes

14:45 V8 SUPERTOURER Feature Race (30 laps)

TV times

New Zealand - TV3 Sunday 29th April 2:00pm – 5pm

Australia – SPEED TV Sunday 29th April 2:30pm – 4:30pm

SCHEDULE OF EVENTS ROUND THREE, MANFEILD, 27TH TO 29TH APRIL.


Red ones always go faster: Turn up to a V8SuperTourers meeting during 2012 and chances are you’ll see a red Holden bearing the iconic #51 out in front at some stage. Driven by Greg Murphy himself or ‘super-

sub’ Fabian Coulthard, this is the car that everyone else is aiming to beat. Photo: Andrew Bright



Paul Radisich is the CEO of V8SuperTourers and adds another touch of class and quality to an operation which has flourished off the back of these elements thus far.

Radisich shot to fame in New Zealand in the early nineties when he featured strongly at the front of the British Touring Car Championship with the Ford factory squad and took out back-to-back World Touring Car Cups in 1993 and 1994.

After his initial success, a number of seasons followed in a car that was no longer competitive and Radisich returned to this side of the world and took up a drive with Dick Johnson racing in the V8Supercar series, taking fourth in the championship in his second year with the team. That was to be his best championship result and after a couple of unsuccessful years with Team Kiwi Racing he was snapped up to partner Rick Kelly for the endurance races in the HSV dealer team.

In 2008, Radisich had his second major crash at Bathurst but this one was to spell the end of his racing career. The throttle jammed open at McPhillmy Park corner sending Radisich into an unprotected concrete wall.

Radisich fractured both ankles, reopened a fracture in his sternum from a previous accident also at Bathurst, fractured lumbar and thoracic vertebrae, cracked ribs and suffered bruising to his lungs.

It was from this point that we picked up a conversation with Radisich.

speedstuff: What have you been doing between your accident at Bathurst and when you were appointed as CEO to V8SuperTourers?

PR: After the crash and once I was mobile and could move around a bit, the family and I headed up the UK where we spent two years as I pursued a couple

of business opportunities. Those ventures came to an end after a two year arrangement at which time my father who ran our family business in Thames – an oil blending company – wanted to semi retire after starting and running the business for 30 years. He put the offer to me to take over the running of that so we decided to head back down under and take that challenge on.

speedstuff: How did the opportunity to head up V8SuperTourers come about?

PR: While I was down here exploring the family business opportunity further, Mark Petch got ahold of me and said “would you be interested in getting involved in the V8SuperTourers”. I went through the concept with him and I liked it from the start, the way the whole thing was put together, and what the opportunities were going forward, so I said yeah, I’d be keen to be involved, and then over a period of two or three months it went from being involved to being “what about becoming the CEO” and I thought “why not”.

speedstuff: What attracted you to the role?PR: Probably the challenge. It’s not everyday you

INTERVIEW PAUL RADISICH, V8SUPERTOURER CEO By Speedstuff

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Face of the brand: Paul introduces the V8Supertourer series at the media launch day at Hampton Downs in early February.

get an opportunity in it’s infancy with the potential to grow it from the ground up. I felt it was the right thing for New Zealand motorsport. For me to be here and not be involved in some respect it just didn’t seem right. I could just see that it was the right way to go and I wanted to be a part of it and it’s also a good change to put something back into motorsport in this country.

speedstuff: What does your role actually entail?

PR: It’s a little bit of everything. V8SuperTourers is pretty much run by three of us. My role is a jack of all trades role from the overseeing of planning, working with the board right down to making sure we’ve got enough toilets in the car park at the race meeting. I have a finger in everything. As far as CEO is concerned, it’s very much hands on.

speedstuff: Are you satisfied with how things have played out up until this point?

PR: Like every new series, there’s teething issues but externally I think it’s gone very well. We’ve had great crowds, the racing has been good, there haven’t been any disappointed people leaving the tracks and I think everyones enjoyed the cars, how fast they are and the amount of stars we’ve got driving the cars.

speedstuff: What were your goals for 2012?

PR: It was mainly about making sure we got through our first year. We are learning along the way, we’ll make mistakes, we’re happy to admit it when it happens and deal with them as we go through. We’ll get the next two races out of the way and on to the enduros and then we can start thinking a bit more about next year.

speedstuff: What are the longer term plans for the series?

PR: Again, it’s a matter of us getting through the first year and assessing where we are then. There’s interest from overseas, there’s interest from other

tracks in New Zealand, there’s a huge amount of interest in the series so I think there will be a lot of changes and what you see this year may not necessarily be the same next year.

speedstuff: Are we likely to see series head further south to perhaps to Teretonga and Levels?

PR: Because the cars are very fast, there are potentially some safety issues for the cars to run but if we can get around that I think you could expect to see us down there in the not too distant future. From a cost point of view, Christchurch was as far as we could go this year and hopefully next year and beyond the series will go further south.

speedstuff: Would you like to see other manufacturers involved in the sport?

PR: Yeah, there’s all sorts of talk at the moment that there’s possibly one or two different manufacturers who might get involved but at this stage the twenty-four cars that will be on the grid next year will be Ford’s and Holden’s.

speedstuff: How would you describe the landscape of New Zealand motorsport at the moment?

PR: It’s fragmented at the moment. At the end of the day I think there can only be one top category in the country and then the rest of it needs to fall into line. Like all things sometimes the tree needs to be shaken for it to happen and its probably at the moment going through a restructuring process.

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Still a hit with the fans: Paul’s effectiveness as CEO of the V8Supertourer organisation is built on his years of experience as a world class driver.



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RECAP ROUND TWO, RUAPUNA By Speedstuff

The big news leading up to the second round of the V8SuperTourers at Ruapuna was that championship leader and headline act Greg Murphy would be forced to miss the event due to a niggling back injury.

Murphy announced just days before the event that he would be a late withdrawal and that fellow kiwi Fabian Coulthard would replace him.

The other big change was that the cars were sporting new bonnet vents to help keep engine temperatures under control, a problem experienced by a number of teams during the first round at Hampton Downs.

Qualifying: Super sub Fabian Coulthard grabbed a sensational pole position for the first race becoming the only driver to dip below the 1 minute 24

seconds in challenging track conditions.With wind and dust from earlier track demonstrations preventing the quicker times from being achievable until late in the qualifying session, Coulthard put in two laps good enough for pole after jousting for the last few minutes of the session with Ford men Jonny Reid and John McIntyre, both of whom held provisional pole at some stage of qualifying.

Reid’s last flying lap ended with a spin at Turn 1, but he was closest to Coulthard with a 1.24.054 lap. McIntyre’s best of 1.24.362 was good enough for third.

Craig Baird was fourth quickest with young charger Scott McLaughlin, Richard Moore, Ant Pedersen, Kayne Scott, Andy Knight and Andre Heimgartner rounding out the top 10.

Which way does the circuit go, and what’s the lap record? Despite the late call-up, lack of recent experience at Ruapuna and reduced practice time, Coulthard claimed pole in the Mike Pero Commodore.

Race one: Fabian Coulthard brought the field across the line for the rolling start and did all he needed to, holding the inside line through turns one and two and proceeding to clear out and lead every lap taking the #51 Holden Commodore to a popular victory.

It was behind Coulthard that a titanic battle developed between McIntyre and Reid which was to last for the entire race.

Three-time NZV8 Champion McIntyre was on the defensive from the end of lap one with principal challenger Jonny Reid glued to his rear end. The two had made slight contact at the start allowing McIntyre to grab second but he was in for a challenging 15 laps as the queue of faster cars formed behind him.

If McIntyre was in for a long 15 laps, then it was a lot worse for local boys Andy Knight and Eddie Bell after the two made contact on lap one and ended up at the tail end of the field.

With McIntyre struggling for outright pace, the

chain behind grew to include Craig Baird, Scott McLaughlin, Kayne Scott, Ant Pedersen and Andy Booth.

With Coulthard long gone and already in tyre conservation mode, Reid attacked but could not find a way by McIntyre. Baird and Mclaughlin were also locked in battle which was ultimately resolved when McLaughlin ground to a halt with a mechanical gremlin on lap 13.

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Thunderbirds are go! V8Supertourers race for the first time at Ruapuna.

Not giving an inch: Reid pressures McIntyre



RECAP ROUND TWO, RUAPUNA (CONTINUED) By Speedstuff

McIntyre held on to take a well deserved second place and Reid was satisfied with a third place that propelled him into the series lead.

Baird ultimately could not find a way by despite some audacious attempts and finished fourth, followed by Ant Pedersen, Kayne Scott, Andy Booth, Andre Heimgartner, Geoff Emery and Richard Moore.

Race two: It was all action on the first lap with the cars bunching heavily into the first corner.Coulthard again emerged cleanly and managed a gap to the other drivers for the remainder of the race to take a second consecutive victory.

It all went wrong for Geoff Emery when he was hit hard in the traffic. The contact turned him round and he was hit broadside by an innocent Colin Corkery, removing the rear passenger door of the car and forcing Corkery into the pits with frontal damage that forced his retirement.

Front row starter John McIntyre lost out to both championship leader Jonny Reid and Craig Baird at the start, and was unable to challenge during the twenty lap race. Reid was clearly trying hard to stay on terms with Coulthard, and enjoyed a few car lengths gap ahead of Baird as he gave chase.

Scott McLaughlin, starting from the rear of the field after an overnight engine change battled his way through the field. He was up to ninth by lap four and continued progress at a rapid rate, moving quickly to eighth and then seventh after Andy Knight retired in a ball of flames, forcing a safety car. That took McLaughlin up to sixth with Kayne Scott in his sights and Ant Pedersen in his mirrors.

With one lap to go, Pedersen made a brave move round the outside, taking McLaughlin and at the same time preventing a charging Andy Booth from sneaking a place. The three duelled for the last lap

but the order remained the same at the flag.Coulthard took maximum points for the win and fastest lap, with Reid second and Baird a solid third.

Race three: Again the field piled into turn one where Jonny Reid and Craig Baird both out-braked themselves after passing Coulthard, allowing a fast starting McIntyre to steal a lead he was never to lose. Coulthard emerged from the dust in second and set off after McIntyre, with Andy Booth in third followed by Baird and the rest. Reid ended up off the track and went right to the back of the pack as the cars streamed through.

Despite several well executed attacks, Coulthard could not find a way past McIntyre.

Booth held onto third as long as the speed in his car allowed him to, but as Baird gathered momentum after the start, it looked increasingly more unlikely that Booth would fend him off. Booth defended until lap 13 when he made a mistake letting Baird through. He immediately bagged his fastest lap of the race but with ten laps to go and the leaders eight seconds up the road, he settled into a comfortable third, protecting the car and accruing some solid points.

The top ten was rounded out by Kayne Scott in fifth, Ant Pedersen in sixth, Steven Richards in seventh after his strongest showing so far in the series, Eddie Bell and Geoff Emery.

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What could have been: Scott McLaughlin is showing true talent but has been dogged by mechanical troubles so far this season.

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Driver Points

John McIntyre 984

Jonny Reid 965

Kayne Scott 930

Ant Pedersen 877

Andy Booth 815

Craig Baird 812

Fabian Coulthard 757

Greg Murphy 625

Steven Richards 606

Scott McLaughlin 585

Eddie Bell 572

Andre Heimgartner 544

Andy Knight 468

Geoff Emery 434

Richard Moore 372

Paul Manuell 359

Colin Corkery 223

POINTS TABLE CHAMPIONSHIP POSITIONS AFTER ROUND TWO

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The top step: Pitted against some of the best drivers in Australiasia, John McIntyre’s race three win must have been as satisfying for him personally as it was for the raucous Canterbury crowd. Photo: Andrew Bright



TRACK WALK MANFEILD AUTOCOURSE By Paul Manuell

Located just fifteen minutes from Palmerston North, Manfield has a long history in New Zealand motorsport.

Recognised as the home of the New Zealand Grand Prix and built by the Manawatu Car Club, the first event was held in 1973.

Manfeild has a number of track variations but the core 3.03km circuit is what the V8SuperTourers will run on.

Orix Racing’s Paul Manuell gives us his thoughts on Manfield.

You know...a lot of people ask: “What’s your favourite track?”.... and I always answer that New Zealand has such an array of track designs and speeds, that finding a comfortable car can be an engineer’s absolute nightmare. As long as I’m burning gas and rubber I’m happy.

However, Manfeild can be ever so cruel. I have seen many engine builders squirm away and disappear into the crowd.

Why? Because it is an engine eater, a tyre destroyer and even the best brake package can be decimated by the end of the weekend. Yep, welcome to Manfeild, where the people are fantastic and the fans are forever. I’ve been racing there for sixteen years and still don’t reckon I’ve mastered it.

The temperature is critical, especially the track rather than the ambient and it plays a huge role in setup.

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Qualifying with a small window of cloud cover will mean the difference between front row and fourth row and damn...does it get hot! Manfeild is also extremely technical and requires a perfect car with nothing left at the end for the perfect lap. It’s all about bravery for braking zones to get the best from your lap here. Manfeild is just a fantastic place to race and I am definitely looking forward to muscling the number 15 Orix SuperTourer round the track.

Turn one: Approaching turn one we’ll be doing approximately 250kmh and it’s all about hitting your braking marker. On the exit the car will try and break loose on you.

Turn two: Turn two is relatively straight forward and all about positioning the car for the two left-handers.

Turn three: You need to ensure you’ve set your car up to deal with the first left hander on the track. Under braking the inside wheel goes light and wants to lock.

Turn five: You need to ensure you don’t go too wide at the hairpin. It can pull more time from a lap than you would care to believe. To see the in-car data of time gained or lost in a lap is astounding.

Turn six: The approach to “Higgins” is all about being hard on the brakes, pushing them through the floor, but as laps disappear so does your braking ability, so beware! The run exiting Higgins is critical to avoid or attack your competitors at the final corner. The car can tend to want to push wide on this corner.

Turn seven: The last turn is where some of the country’s best overtaking manoeuvres have taken place...and if you don’t believe me then try watching it from my seat. The kink on the exit of the corner is like a magnet – it sucks everyone in.

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TECH SECTION SETTING UP A V8SUPERTOURER FOR MANFEILD By Jason Liefting

On the face of it, Manfield appears to be a fairly straight forward proposition. Seven turns with three long straights and relatively short in distance at just a tick over 3kms. We caught up with John McIntyre’s race engineer Jason Liefting who very quickly dispelled that myth.

The track: There are a number of elements to the Manfield circuit that throw up a challenging engineering proposition.- Only two out of the seven corners turn left- The circuit is used a lot for truck racing which means the entry to all of the corners is quite bumpy- There are three long straights with three heavy braking areas- The exit to a lot of corners are long and protracted

Setup: Whilst we haven’t been to Manfield in a V8SuperTourer even in a testing capacity, we can carry some knowledge across from the other cars we’ve run there.

The nature of the bumpy entry into a number of the corners means the car needs to needs to remain very compliant from a front suspension perspective in dealing with the bumps whilst maintaining maximum brake force otherwise you will end up with a car that just skips across the surface.

Trail braking is a practice that is required here where you start to turn the car in whilst still maintaining a degree of brake pressure. Again, without that suspension compliance you won’t be able to do that.

De-brief: Jason and John discuss aspects of the car’s performance after each session.

Because the exit to turns one, six and seven are so long and protracted, you need to have a car that allows you to apply lead acceleration. If you need to wait until the wheel is straight before you apply the accelerator, you’ll lose 25 metres to your competitors every time.

The middle section of the track through the right-left combination commonly referred to as ‘splash’ looks insignificant on paper being such a short section of the track but the time you can gain or lose through there is massive. There’s a bit of concrete right on the apex that sticks out and if you hit that the car just wont cope so you need to be able to place your car very accurately to ensure a fast and safe line through that section.

With Manfield having only two of its seven corners turn left, it creates an interesting engineering dilemma. People have different views on this, some believe that you should always set your car up symmetrically regardless of the symmetrical nature of the track. It is my belief that you should should set the car up asymmetrically where there is an overwhelming majority of corners that turn a particular way. Whilst we don’t have a massive range of changes available to us, we will certainly be looking to set the cars up with a bias towards the right hand corners.

Cooling: Cooling can be a problem at Manfield. While you might think that with three long straights this takes care of itself, it’s the nature of the corners leading onto the straights that place pressure on the engine. All of the corners leading onto the straights have a relatively low exit speed meaning you have maximum acceleration for a long period of time. If you have a cooling issue it will be exposed at Manfield.

The weather will play a major factor in this, if it’s cool it shouldn’t be too much of a problem but if it’s hot, don’t be surprised to see engines operating at or above their maximum tolerance levels.

Braking: Even though the straights are long and the braking areas heavy, we expect the brake package to hold up very well. My experience in single seater racing is that a decent brake package responds well to being kept in a high temperature operating range which Manfield certainly does.

Tyres: This weekend could be the first time that we get to use the wet tyre. The only wet tyre running we have under our belts is out of the transporter and into the workshop. If the weather does turn sour, it will be a complete field leveller. Not many of the teams have tested in wet conditions and even if they have, it hasn’t been at Manfield which pretty much rules that experience useless.

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Tyres and brakes: One of the many factors an engineer has to optimise for a fast lap at any track.



Cracker Woody: As Andy Booths’ entry shows, teams are certainly putting in the effort for sponsors and fans to make sure cars are well presented out on track. Photo: Andrew Bright


TEAM PROFILE AV8 MOTORSPORT By Speedstuff

AV8 Motorsport is a team founded and run on the solid principals of trust and mateship.

It is run by Andy Booth and Wayne ‘Jacko’ Anderson and only came about after a chance meeting between the pair at Pukekohe back in 2001.

Booth had just returned from a number of years competing overseas in single seaters and was at the track doing some TV work, whilst Anderson, who has been around the motorsport scene for a long time most notably competing in his trademark yellow Pinepac Falcon and Mustang, was testing his Chevrolet Camaro.

The pair struck up a conversation which led to Booth boldy suggesting that the he and Anderson should compete in the Liquor King 500 race at Ruapuna in two weeks time driving the NZV8 car Anderson had recently finished building.

That idea was knocked on the head by Anderson, but he did mention to Booth, that if he could come up with the budget, he could drive the car in the upcoming NZV8 season.

“I don’t think Wayne ever expected me to call back.” Booth said.

“But in the five days from when the idea was floated, I rang every contact I had and managed to get a sponsor on board and pull the budget together.”

Team AV8 with Booth driving and Anderson preparing the car went on to finish their inaugural season second overall.

The team went on to take back to back NZV8 titles in the 03/04 and 04/05 seasons, the first running under the Team Kiwi Racing colours when the team also ran a car for fellow V8SuperTourer driver John McIntyre.

Much to AV8’s delight, the team managed to move away from the TKR arrangement and formed an alliance with Paul Manuell’s ORIX racing team, preparing the cars separately but joining forces on race weekends. That evolved over the following

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The best in the West: Andy and Wayne in the early days

Big names: Booth’s commercial savvy has seen the team sponsored by some very well known brands.

years to Manuell’s car being run out of the AV8 workshop and the team effectively running a two car operation.

‘Evolve’ is common vocabulary around the AV8 workshop. Booth admits that the team have never really had a grand plan, moreso just adapted to situations and opportunities that have presented themselves.

“Without us going looking for it, there seemed to be a lot of business opportunities that came looking for us.” Booth recalls.

A perfect example of that is when the business brought in it’s own engine builder and fabricator Steve Birdling to work on the teams own cars but that quickly expanded to include a customer program during the heyday of NZV8’s where they were building engines for a number of other teams.

About eighteen months ago Booth and Anderson held one of their typical business meetings – over a beer – and agreed that their future was not in NZV8’s. They decided that the operation should

be scaled back and Booth credits Anderson for his foresight in recognising the need to do so.

“The commercial opportunities around NZV8’s were all but dead.” Booth says. “I was finding it impossible to sell sponsorship. About this time V8SuperTourers was born and all of our attention was turned to that.”

Anderson was one of the founders of V8SuperTourers and he and the AV8 workshop has played a very big part in the birth of the series.

AV8 fabricated and supplied a large number of parts that make up a V8SuperTourer and continue to do so as the series evolves.

The team operate from the ultimate man shed which is located on Wayne’s property in rural West Auckland. As you look around the walls are filled with front guards representing the various liveries the teams cars have run under.

The workshop employs two full time staff in Wayne and his son Tony who prepare the teams two cars for Booth and Andre Heimgartner. Apart from driving,

If these walls could talk: AV8’s history is recorded on the walls of their workshop

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Booth is also responsible for the commercial side of the operation in terms of securing sponsors and keeping them happy.

“It just seems to be a relationship that works really well. All Wayne wants to do is play on race cars in his workshop and take them racing on weekends and I have a liking for the commercial side of it. We just get on and do our own thing and it all works out.”

As for where the business is heading, they don’t have any plans to build a super team, but if they can keep doing what they are doing, they’ll be happy.

“We’ve never really had a particular business plan around certain things. You’ve kind of got to follow the trends of the sport and out of that opportunities come along and you’ve got to jump on them.”

“We don’t have any great plans to create a motorsport empire. It’s always been based around the relationship between Wayne and myself. We’ve got a very relaxed easy working relationship where we’ll make most of our decisions over a beer and a coffee and then just get on and do it.”

And that’s exactly what they’ve been doing. Booth has been competing at the pointy end of the field and currently sits fifth in the championship after two rounds.

Andy Booth: Although Booth comes from strong racing pedigree with his father racing in the popular Formula 5000 series during the 70’s, he was a relatively late starter in motorsport.Booth never raced karts, and only competed in a handful of Formula Ford events in New Zealand before heading to the UK to pursue a single seater career.

He successfully campaigned in the Slick 50 Formula Ford Championship, and later in the Formula Palmer Audi series as well as stints in the Indy Lights Championship in the USA and Formula Holden in Australia.

Booth won the Tasman Series in 2000, as well as taking the New Zealand Grand Prix and Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy before embarking on his NZV8 career which is where he has been up until last year.

Andre Heimgartner:Heimgartner has been racing competitively since the age of seven, moving through the various karting classes. From there, and at the tender young age of twelve, he obtained his National Race Licence and spent two seasons in the New Zealand Formula First championship.

In 2009 Heimgartner stepped up to Formula Ford with an assault on the Formula Ford Winter Series, the South Island Championship and the National Championship. Heimgarnter won the Winter Series, along with the South Island Championship and came sixth in national championship. Heimgartner then went on to take back to back Formula Ford national titles before stepping up the newly formed V8SuperTourer championship creating a lot of press along the way as he was and still is only sixteen years of age.

He is also competing for Team Kiwi Racing in the Australian Porsche Carrera Cup Championship showing impressive pace in the opening two rounds. He currently sits twelfth in the V8SuperTourer championship after a couple of troubled rounds.

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TEAM PROFILE AV8 MOTORSPORT (CONTINUED) By Speedstuff

Autobots? Pitcrew from the International Motorsport team wait outside their garage for Jonny Reid and Ant Pedersen during practice. Photo: Andrew Bright



NEWS IN BRIEF CATCH ALL THE NEWS FROM BETWEEN ROUNDS By Speedstuff

3rd April: Twenty-four V8SuperTourers for 2013All twenty-four franchises confirmed as sold with twenty-four cars expected to line up on the grid for 2013.

10th April: McIntyre docked points for irregularityRuapuna race three winner John McIntyre was docked 50 points for not following a V8SuperTourer directive to shorten one of the suspension arms on his car between meetings. McIntyre’s championship lead was reduced to only 19 points..

13th April: Aussie engine builder called in for helpV8SuperTourers have enlisted the help of Aussie engine builder Craig

Hasted to solve the ongoing engine overheating issues plaguing a number of teams during the opening two rounds.

17th April: South African expansion plans haltedPlans to replicate the V8SuperTourer series in South Africa were halted due to South African authorities revealing the large car technical package the V8SuperTourers is based on does not suit their car market.

18th April: M2 Motorsport commences buildThe 18th V8SuperTourer chassis belonging to M2 Motorsport to be driven

by Simon McLennen in the endurance races this year arrives in New Zealand and begins the build process.

22nd April: Reid signs with Tekno for V8Supercar endurosInternational Motorsport driver Jonny Reid confirmed he will partner Michael Patrizi in the Tekno Autosports team for the V8Supercar endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst this year.

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SUPPORT CLASSES THE V8 CHALLENGE CUP CONTINUES AT MANFEILD By Speedstuff

With the V8SuperTourers heading back to a North Island circuit, they will be supported by their regular North Island categories being the V8 Challenge Cup and the NZ Hondacup Series as well as a healthy field of Pre 65’s and the a mixture of saloon car madness in the Allcomer saloon car category

V8 Challenge Cup: The V8 Challenge Cup is made up of cars that have generally come out of the NZV8 category and no longer comply with the requirements for that championship going forward.

There was a modest field at the inaugural round in Hampton Downs back in February but that field is expected to increase to over thirteen with the inclusion of Rex McCutcheon, Rodney Gimblett, Mark Gibson and Jamie McNee.

Matt Lockwood took round one honours with a commanding display, winning all three races as well as topping every session, with championship standings as follows: Matt Lockwood, Hugh Gardiner, Andrew Anderson, Alan McCarrison, Hayden Pedersen, Glenn Inkster, Shannon Chambers and Troy Anderson.

NZ Hondacup Series: The NZ Hondacup series includes many vintages of Hondas and the various models including Civic, Integra and CRX models from the 80’s to the current models. With over 30 entries it is certain to provide exciting racing throughout the field. Tuning on some cars represents the latest thinking in club Honda racing globally.

This event marks the final round of the championship and with Mark Walters and Shane Parsons separated by only two points at top of the ladder, the trophy could go either way. Third place in the standings is held by Martin Dunn who also has a mathematical chance of taking the title.

Pre 65’s: Pre 65 racing relives the exciting fender to fender battles from the sixties, pitting ground shaking V8s against barking sixes and screaming fours, just as they did back in the halcyon days of saloon car racing in N.Z. and around the world.

There will be a collection of these car in a class which celebrates the glory days of New Zealand saloon car racing. An invitation only event will see a field of close to twenty cars in this popular class. TheKeep an eye out for Tony Elmiger in his 65’ Mustang, Joanne Kapua in the Thunderbird, Bill McKinnen in his Chevvy Nova and Alex Davey in the Vauxhall.

Allcomer saloons: An open invitation has been put out to various saloon car categories around New Zealand. You can expect to see a number of cars from each of the NZGT, OSCA, SS2000 and Porsche GT3 Cup classes line up on the grid. There will be approximately 25–30 of these beasts on raceday.

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Support acts: Matt Lockwood and Hondacup


Ford Focus: A brief moment of quiet while he waits for his crew make adjustments to his Falcon, Bairdo’s thoughts are no doubt on nailing the perfect lap. Photo: Andrew Bright



DRIVER PROFILES THINGS YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT THE DRIVERS

Jonny Reid: Car #2

Team International Motorsport Major successes 2003 Formula Ford

Champion

Town/City of origin Auckland 2003 NZGP winner

Currently living in Manukau 06/07 & 07/08 A1GP second in championship

Age 28 Favourite racing driver Ayrton Senna

Andy Knight: Car #5

Team Andy Knight Motorsport Major successes 2007/08 Toyota Racing Series champion

Town/City of origin Christchurch 2008 NZGP winner

Currently living in Christchurch 2008/09 NZ Motor Cup


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Richard Moore: Car #10

Team M3 Racing Major successes 2009 National Open go-kart title

Town/City of origin Auckland

Currently living in Christchurch


Geoff Emery: Car #12

Team Melbourne Performance Centre Major successes 02-07 Australian C’dore

Cup Champion

Town/City of origin Melbourne

Currently living in Melbourne

Age 39 Favourite racing driver

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Paul Manuell: Car #15

Team M3 Racing Major successes 2001 NZV8 Champion

Town/City of origin Christchurch

Currently living in Pukekohe

Age 43 Favourite racing driver Dave Oxton

Andre Heimgartner: Car #22

Team AV8 Motorsport Major successes 2010 South Island Formula Ford Champion

Town/City of origin Auckland 2010-11 NZ Formula Ford Champion

Currently living in Auckland 2011-12 NZ Formula Ford Champion

Age 16 Favourite racing driver Scott Dixon

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Andy Booth: Car #23

Team AV8 Motorsport Major successes 2000 NZ GP winner

Town/City of origin North Shore 2004 NZV8 Champion

Currently living in North Shore 2005 NZV8 Champion

Age 37 Favourite racing driver Alex Zanardi

Craig Baird: Car #27

Team PSR Racing Major successes 1994-1997 NZ Touring Car Champion

Town/City of origin Hamilton 2006, 2008, 2011 Aust. Carrera Cup Champion

Currently living in Gold Coast 2005-2010 NZ Porsche GT3 Champion

Age 41 Favourite racing driver Jim Richards

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John McIntyre: Car #47

Team John McIntyre Racing Major successes 06/07 NZV8 Champion

Town/City of origin Hastings 07/08 NZV8 Champion

Currently living in Nelson 10/11 NZV8 Champion

Age 35 Favourite racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio

Greg Murphy: Car #51

Team M3 Racing Major successes 1996, 1999, 2003, 2004 Bathurst winner

Town/City of origin Hastings 1994 NZGP and Gold Star winner

Currently living in Melbourne 1995 NZ Gold star winner

Age 39 Favourite racing driver Bruce McLaren

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Colin Corkery: Car #66

Team Racing Projects Major successes 2008 Australian V8 Utes round winner

Town/City of origin Auckland 2008 Australian V8 Utes fifth overall

Currently living in Sydney

Age 27 Favourite racing driver Michael Schumacher

Eddie Bell: Car #69

Team Bell Racing Major successes Inaugural Mini Challenge winner

Town/City of origin Christchurch NZV8 Race and round winner

Currently living in Christchurch


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Scott McLaughlin: Car #93

Team Melbourne Performance Centre Major successes Youngest ever V8

Supercar driver (16 yrs)

Town/City of origin Christchurch Youngest ever V8 Supercar winner (17 yrs)

Currently living in Gold Coast Youngest ever NZV8 race winner (17 yrs)

Age 18 Favourite racing driver Greg Murphy

Ant Pedersen: Car #96

Team International Motorsport Major successes 2009/10 NZ Endurance

driving Champion

Town/City of origin Rotorua

Currently living in Hamilton

Age 23 Favourite racing driver Jeff Gordon

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Kayne Scott: Car #99

Team Farmer Racing Services Major successes 1991-94 NZ Tranzam Champion

Town/City of origin Hamilton 05/06 NZV8 Champion

Currently living in Hamilton 08/09 NZV8 Champion


Steven Richards: Car #556

Team John McIntyre Racing Major successes 1994 Australian Formula Ford Champion

Town/City of origin Auckland 1998 and 99 Bathurst winner

Currently living in Melbourne 2002 Bathurst 24 hour winner

Age 39 Favourite racing driver Sir Jack Brabham

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speedstuff.co.nz event guide: v8supertourers round three

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