TKR Move To 6th In V8 Supercar Championship After Gamble Pays Off
10/5/2004 0:41 (Press Release) -
Team Kiwi Racing have continued their consistent run this year in the third round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series at Pukekohe Park Raceway, to be the first single car team and 6th outright in the Australian V8 Supercar Championship at the completion of the PlaceMakers V8 International.
Showing that they are prepared to take a gamble, TKR started the first race from Pit Lane on slick tyres in damp and trying conditions, while every other one of the 32 car field started on wet weather tyres.
The decision to swap from wet weather tyres to slicks for the start of the race was made while Team Kiwi Driver Craig Baird was on the warm up lap for race one.
"We knew it would be a gamble but we had nothing to lose after qualifying in 29th position due to a broken valve spring in the engine during qualifying on Friday"
"As a result we only dropped back a few more places for the start of race one knowing that as long as it did not rain, that we should be able to get some heat into the tyres reasonably quickly and that the cars in front would naturally start to develop a dry line around the circuit as the race progressed, we would be far quicker on slicks than any one else would be on wet weather tyres during the second half of the 36 lap race," said Baird.
The calculated risk looked wrong at the beginning as the other teams on wet weather tyres were circulating around 4 seconds a lap quicker than Baird as he struggled for grip until he got some temperature into the tyres and a dry line started to appear around the Pukekohe circuit.
The ALL BLACK TKR machine then started to circulate approx 3 seconds quicker than all the other cars on the circuit seeing TKR as the big mover for the first race as Baird calculated and moved his way through from 32nd position to 9th position by the end of race one.
Race two saw the TKR finish 17th in a conservative drive by Baird who was mindful that he had to finish the race to capitalise on his first race points haul.
Race three again saw the TKR team focus on consistency avoiding potential clashes with other cars to finish 20th out of the 32 car field.
The combined race results were good enough to ensure the overall weekend tally for TKR moved the Kiwi team another couple of steps forward in the V8 Supercar Championship Series standings.
TKR have moved from 8th position prior to the PlaceMakers V8 International to 6th position outright at the completion of the event.
"We are very happy to be sitting 6th in the Championship but we are also smart enough to know that it will continue to get harder to stay in that position as the factory teams apply the pressure," said Team Owner David John.
"Our budget is limited and as the commentary team said on the weekend when you compare that TKR's full season running budget is probably the same as HRT's catering budget for the year, we know we have a lot of work ahead of us and need to work smarter to stay at the pointy end of the V8 Supercar Championship".
Release Date: 03/05/2004
Team Kiwi Racing
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