Richards eyes top five result in last blast for V8 Supercars at Pukekohe
13/4/2005 22:21 (Press Release) -
Racing a V8 Supercar in his homeland is a big deal to Kiwi Jason Richards and the Tasman Motorsport driver is keen for the category’s last event at Pukekohe to be the most successful of his career.
After a troubled start to the championship at the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, Richards is especially fired up to perform in front of his home crowd at a circuit where he started racing as a teenager.
His Dodo Commodore will debut a new Neil Burns-built engine this weekend in a bid to move the Melbourne-based squad further up the field.
“It's a shame it's the last race our cars will have at Pukekohe,” said Richards, who finished 10th in last year’s V8 International.
“The cars are really quite suited to the circuit. I've had some of my best results in V8 Supercars there with a fourth place in a race back in the Team Kiwi days and we ran in the top 10 last year in the older model VX Commodore for Tasman Motorsport. I cut my teeth as a young bloke at Pukekohe so it's a shame we have to leave it.
"Pukekohe has the fastest average circuit speed of all the tracks we go to and you spend a lot of the time on full throttle, so the more power the better!
"Finishing in the top 10 again is a realistic expectation but I'm looking for better than that. Hopefully the home crowd can lift us up and help us find a few tenths of a second and put us in the top five.”
Team-mate Whincup has only competed at the 2.82km Pukekohe circuit once (in 2003), but enters round two in a solid 13th in the championship. His approach of calm and consistent driving is one that he is looking to carry into the New Zealand event.
“I’ll just take that same approach because it’s paid off to this point,” said the 22-year-old, who will have an updated engine in his #23 Dodo Commodore VZ.
“We’re just chipping away at things out of the spotlight and improving all the time. Pukekohe is quite unique and the real challenge is to work with your engineer to get the right shock setup to deal with the bumpy nature of the track. The final corner is where the bumps are at their worst so there’s not much room for error in such a fast sweeper.
“I’m confident where we are on the results sheet at the moment is a good reflection of where the team and I are at. We have the right plans in place to make the step forward but it’s just a matter of us all working hard.
“What gives me confidence at this stage is the fact that the cars are going to be quicker and see a lot more speed, especially in qualifying, in the next few rounds. That isn’t the direct answer to championship points, but it does make the job slightly easier when you’re running further up the grid away from the mid-pack carnage.”
The Tasman team is particularly looking forward to Pukekohe, considering it a ‘home’ race, even though the team is based in Australia. In addition to driver Richards, the team has a strong Kiwi ownership contingent as well as backing from Holden New Zealand and NZ company Fusion Electronics.
Team principal Kevin Murphy said that many of the team’s backers would be out in force to see the action on the weekend.
“There’s a real following for Tasman Motorsport developing in New Zealand and a good result at Pukekohe would do wonders for not just our backers on a sponsorship level, but helping grow our fan base as well,” he said.
“Steadily we are on the improve and the results have been showing that. I’m sure our new merchandise range will prove popular as well with the V8-mad Kiwi fans!”
The V8 Supercars will compete in three races over the course of the weekend. The first, a 100-kilometre race, will be run on Saturday while there will be two 140-kilometre races on the Sunday. All three have compulsory pit stops for tyres, of which each car has an allocation of 12 dry and 12 wets for the meeting.
Network Ten will telecast all of the action in Australia from 12pm to 5pm on Sunday.
Release Date: 07/04/2005
Tasman Motorsport
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