In a season packed with drama, the first overall V8 SuperTourer title will go down to the wire and the spoils of championship glory look to be heading to either points leader Scott McLaughlin or sprint series champion John McIntyre.

With one round to go – the Mike Pero Real Estate 350 at the Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, Ruapuna over the weekend of November 23, 24 and 25 – young Gold Coast based ace McLaughlin heads the table with 2,995 points ahead of McIntyre’s 2840. Each get to drop their lowest scoring round, but after a zero pointer at Manfeild, McLaughlin is in the stronger position heading to the South Island finale with his points tally intact no matter what.

It is a remarkable turnaround for the 19 year old, who has not just hit the sweet spot in his SuperTourer, but who has also excelled across the Tasman with wins in the Dunlop development series and a superlative sixth place with Jono Webb at Bathurst. He is not only in pole position for the overall SuperTourer title at Ruapuna, but could snatch the endurance series title from his hero Greg Murphy there too.

“The key was that we never put our heads down,” said McLaughlin. “For sure, Manfeild brought us incredibly bad luck but to come back shows just what sort of team I have around me. I never gave up and I knew if I could just have few good runs we would get back in the title race. Luckily for me, we did exactly that and here I am.”

McIntyre meanwhile, came off the back of narrowly winning the sprint element of the first season of V8 SuperTourers and had every expectation that this run of form would continue with Jono Lester on board with McIntyre for the enduro races – but it’s not been as simple as that as he explained.

“We can definitely bounce back from Pukekohe. It was the first time we have not been on a V8ST podium, so we know we are capable of better. We just produced a very poor performance couple with a few issues out of our control and this gave the end result. The championship title will be very difficult due to us having to drop a score but you never say ‘never’ until the last lap of the last race.”

Both of the leading contenders are looking forward to returning to Ruapuna. In the first V8 SuperTourer event there earlier this year, McLaughlin was fast but fragile and McIntyre turned in what he believes was one of his best ever races. Both are adamant they will be at the sharp end of the action when they take to the track.

“Beating Coulthard in the feature race at Ruapuna was a season highlight for me,” said McIntyre. “He clearly had better speed. I had nothing left and thought I drove a very good race. We certainly did have a good car at Ruapuna but the bar has been lifted since then. We need the preparation to be spot on and from there we can work on performance. We will probably start one car with the set-up from last time and build from there and the other car with something completely different. I don’t think the team has ever been more focussed on the task in hand.”

McLaughlin meanwhile, hopes reliability will be the key to a much improved performance in Christchurch. “We were hampered by engine troubles at Ruapuna and that is what masked our speed,” he said. “We were lightning fast through the infield but as soon as I had to go down the straight I needed clean air to keep everything cool. That is now sorted and I am very confident we will be on the money straight away.”

Both drivers though, have excelled in their first season of V8 SuperTourer racing and both believe the racing has sharpened their skills hugely, whoever ends up taking the title.

“I think the racing has helped with endurance driving due to the longer nature of the races,” said McIntyre. “I have done more passing and been passed by more people in one season of SuperTourer racing than I was in nine seasons of racing in NZV8s. It has sharpened me up in regards to passing and conversely I have improved in terms of minimising lost time when I have been passed.”

McLaughlin too, has seen the benefits. “It’s really taught me how to lead and control the race and this was something I never learned to do before this year. It’s also been great preparation for the Aussie enduros and taught me a huge amount about driver change overs. Honestly though, the coolest thing has been racing Murph. No kidding, my whole life I have wanted to race Greg and I got to do it this year. I cannot emphasise how big a deal that was for me and SuperTourers made it happen.”

The huge weekend of motor racing kicks off with Friday testing at the track on November 23rd, with racing on Saturday and Sunday over three races forming the Mike Pero Real Estate 350. All tickets and details are available from www.eventfinda.co.nz

With a host of new changes planned for the upcoming season at Taupo Thunder Dragway and the Summer season starting to roll in work could begin in earnest on the myriad of jobs to be completed before the season kicks off in late December.
The first official working bee proved hugely successful even if the weather didn’t exactly come to the party. Through driving rain Saturday the huge grandstand previously situated at the back of the Taupo Motorsport Park Venue was systematically dismantled into six huge pieces by the willing bunch of volunteers who turned up and battled the rain and enormous task ahead of them. With shear manpower the Grandstand was lifted onto a trailer and each piece driven around the circuit to its new home a few hundred feet out from the startline on the Broadlands Road side. Along with the huge new addition a smaller grandstand was erected on the pit side just behind the startline. More grandstands will be installed at a later date to create a better viewing experience for everyone involved. With rubber peeling from the concrete part of the race surface a well overdue scrape was performed, an arduous task taking the best part of both days but ultimately providing the best base possible for the Yanks when they arrive here for the Nitro Nostalgia Reunion on the December 29.
With the new scoreboards having now arrived and a few other upgrades and improvements planned the venue is set for a whole new look come summer as a new era begins at the venue, set to provide the ultimate race experience for everyone. For all the info on what is planned this summer head on over to www.taupodrags.co.nz.

The New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing has announced a Family Pass for the forthcoming January Gulf NZFMR events that will celebrate the life and career of New Zealand’s only Formula One champion Denny Hulme.

The pass – available to purchase ONLY from the NZFMR web site – will cost just $60 and will provide General Admission access for up to two adults and five children Under 18 for one day on each of the two weekends – either January 18-20 or 25-27.

“Ticket sales have been going very well especially with our Early Bird offers that ended in October,” said Chairman Jim Barclay. “We have also been getting more and more requests for some sort of family pass from our feedback on Facebook and email and that’s why we are now offering a one day family pass. Fans should note, however, that it is only available from the web site and that it is only GA and not Grandstand access. However, that’s going to be fine for the family looking to make a day or weekend of it.”

A revival mini Can-Am series, and the world’s biggest annual gathering of Formula 5000 cars head the bill over both weekends of the Gulf-backed event, but there will be hundreds of interesting cars both on and off the track with a special relevance to the life and career of Denny Hulme. Static displays will include his Formula One car, his championship winning Can-Am car and even his first road car!

All tickets are available from www.nzfmr.co.nz

Unless you’ve got the budget to get a car built by one of the big names in America, such as Chip Foose, Troy Trepanier, or similar, chances are you won’t know what the finished product will look like, until it’s sitting in your driveway.

Aucklander Geoff Milliken however, knew almost exactly what his next project would look like, and that’s because he already had a picture of it on his wall before he began. Like most of us in the car world, Geoff’s had petrol in his veins from a young age, fuelled by growing up watching his uncle — one of New Zealand’s more well known drag racers — Nick Leifting competing around the country.

From those early days, he’s had a variety of machines, ranging from motorbikes, through to a candy-coated Cobra replica we featured back in Issue 52. With a growing family, the Cobra wasn’t really practical though, so Geoff set about finding something with a few more seats, and that’s when he turned to Read the full story »

The name Chuck Mann is a familiar one to these pages. He’s regarded as one of the best transmission guys in New Zealand when it comes to piecing together bulletproof transmissions for street or strip duties.

Unless you’ve visited his shop (Rotorua V8 Performance) though, or know someone who has, you may not know that besides being a trans shop owner, he’s one serious party guy, and his trans shop/house/bar proves just that. While most people are content with just one bar area in their shed, Chuck likes to Read the full story »

The biggest event in circuit motor racing in the country this year is set to rock Pukekohe on and off the track this weekend when the V8 SuperTourers make their first appearance at the legendary track for their International 500.

Twenty cars and forty top-line drivers will tackle the circuit in its old configuration in three enduro races totalling 500km, and with work set to start on the venue for the return of the V8 Supercars in 2013, it will almost certainly be the final time that big, fast, V8 touring cars are unleashed on the ultra-fast old layout.

Greg Murphy is back in the hot seat in the M3 racing Mike Pero Mortgages Holden, and will be partnered by Jack Perkins. The appearance of Chris van Der Drift alongside Tim Edgell brings the number of former Black Beauty A1GP team drivers racing to three – with Jonny Reid and Matt Halliday also in the field. International drivers include Porsche legend Jeroen Bleekemolen and the racing promises to be even more competitive than the gripping first enduro event at Taupo on Father’s Day.

Track action commences from 10am on Friday with support class testing, with the SuperTourers testing on track from 1.20pm. The parade of cars through Pukekohe will take place at 7.45pm and action on circuit on Saturday and Sunday begins at 9.35am and 10.10am respectively. Saturday night’s concert at the circuit gets underway at 5.30pm. The V8 SuperTourer format will include qualifying and a Top Ten Shoot out on Saturday, with one race on Saturday afternoon, and two races including the Feature race on Sunday.

With a theme of Race By Day and Party By Night – Saturday evening will come alive with the sound of The Feelers and the Jordan Luck Band headlining a number of talented Kiwi acts and there will even be action in the air to look forward to – with helicopter hot laps following the racing cars available to the punters and air displays promised by the newly rebuilt WW2 Mosquito and a Strikemaster jet fighter if the weather holds out – which it is forecast to do.

Support for the SuperTourers on the circuit comes from an exciting field of V8 Challenge Cup cars featuring the tin top stars of tomorrow, breathtaking pace from the new Trans-Am type XtremeSports & GT Series cars and season opening full grids from the Central Muscle Cars and the Motul Honda Cup.