Richards Exploits Home Track Advantage With Top Ten Finish
10/5/2004 0:46 (Press Release) -
Tasman Motorsport put an exclamation point on an excellent weekend’s racing and made plenty of new fans with driver Jason Richards finishing 10th for the round at New Zealand’s Pukekohe Park Raceway in Round 3 of the V8 Supercar Championship Series.
New Zealand-born Richards, a former Auckland resident who still calls Pukekohe his home track, is a noted wet-weather specialist. He revelled in the damp conditions and after qualifying in 16th position he finished 14th in the first race after being caught up in someone else’s spin, but pressed on to finish ninth in each of the two subsequent races.
His aggregate result of 10th for the round was the best in the short history of Tasman Motorsport, formed this year, and exceeded the expectations of its team principals.
Richards said he was delighted with the consistency the team had been able to achieve in both wet and dry conditions. “Nobody gave us this result – we worked hard and earned it,” he said.
There were early setbacks to be overcome, particularly missing the coveted Top 10 Shootout by just .15 seconds. “I thought we had a pretty competitive time in qualifying, it just shows how competitive the category is when you can be .15 seconds away and have to start from 16th,” he said.
After a great start in Race 1 in which he gained four positions on the opening lap, Richards gave them all back when forced to swerve off the track to avoid the spinning car of Russell Ingall.
“If we hadn't had to miss Russell, we could have been knocking on the door of the top 10 by the end of Race 1," Richards said.
Starting from 14th in the second race Richards battled forwards to finish 9th, but it was the third race which gave the clearest indication yet of the Tasman team’s potential.
Richards was able to apply constant pressure to the Falcon of Steven Johnson, while keeping highly rated opponents Garth Tander, Paul Radisich and John Bowe in his rear view mirror.
“Steve was slowing me down, I just didn't have the poke to stick it up the inside or put the pressure up to him in the corners,” he said. “However, our car as an overall package was faster than his.
“Even though we're still running the VX, it's encouraging that we have found the package to compete with VYs and BAs. We might have turned a corner today, certainly Wally (chief engineer Wally Storey) and I have another meeting under our belts where we worked pretty well together.”
Release Date: 05/05/2004
Tasman Motorsport
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