McConville keen to break GRM hoodoo in New Zealand as Jones makes Pukekohe debut
13/4/2005 22:39 (Press Release) -
Garry Rogers Motorsport’s Cameron McConville is keen to break the team’s hoodoo at Pukekohe in New Zealand this weekend as the V8 Supercar Championship Series heads across the Tasman Sea.
In four starts at the bumpy New Zealand circuit McConville hasn’t been able to crack the top 20 and GRM itself has managed just the one top 10 finish over the event’s four-year existence. It’s a statistic the Victorian is keen to put right.
“Pukekohe has been a tricky one for us in the past,” said McConville, who sits eighth in the championship.
“We struggled for speed there last year in qualifying and the races but I think we’re capable of a much better result there this year. Our car speed has been very encouraging so far this season and, even though we’re only at round two, I’d expect our cars will work a lot better there this year.
McConville, who scored his maiden V8 Supercar victory at Winton last year, says the team’s improved qualifying speed has been an important factor in their 2005 campaign.
“Our improved qualifying speed has definitely been attainable with the fresh new car, allowing us to extract more out of the car. We missed the Top 10 Shootout by just tenths in Adelaide, so we’re aiming at making it in New Zealand.”
The 31-year-old has also found his new Holden Commodore VZ, the seventh car produced in-house by Garry Rogers Motorsport, to be responding well to setup changes that make for a competitive package.
“Whether it’s a positive or negative, the car responds well to changes. At the end of last year we were running out of things to do and could never get a gain out of using new tyres. I’m really rapt that every change we make you can feel it and the car gets grip on a new tyre.
“As a track, Pukekohe is very challenging to get the car right for. It’s a short lap but very hard to make a big gain everywhere – you’re absolutely on the ragged edge and might only find half a tenth of a second improvement, which could equate to improving six spots on the grid.
Teams have a two-hour practice session on Friday to run their cars on the 2.82-kilometre circuit and the longer session time will give GRM a chance to test further engineering ideas.
“We’ll be trying a few things in the practice session because it’s longer, so we can bit a bit more adventurous than we would otherwise be in a 30-minute session,” added McConville.
Teammate Andrew Jones will be making his first start at Pukekohe, and indeed his first visit to New Zealand, and is expecting a tough weekend given how much experience counts at the circuit.
“Even in my years with BJR I never went to Pukekohe to even watch so I’ve been doing a fair bit of research about what’s happened over there in the last few years.
“You have to set your goals realistically. At Adelaide I qualified in front of all of the other guys who are having their first full year in the series like Alex Davison, Steve Owen and Matthew White, so that was a positive.
“It was a fairly tough weekend in Adelaide. Results-wise it wasn’t all that great. At the end of the race I don’t think I was the lone ranger as far as that was concerned! I seemed to be in the wrong spot at the wrong time and got caught up in things.
“Pukekohe is a short circuit and qualifying is generally covered by 1.5s so it will be about who is on top of their game and experience will help a lot.”
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 from 12pm to 5pm on Sunday.
Release Date: 11/04/2005
Garry Rogers Motorsport
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