Accomplished kiwi race ace Craig Baird is the latest top-tier driver to join the ranks of the inaugural V8SuperTourer race series as one of the first 16 drivers set to begin racing in February 2012 at Hampton Downs.

The Gold Coast-based driver, says the new race car category is the golden opportunity to add to his 27 championship titles collection. Baird will drive one of the brand new 550 horsepower cars for the United Video Racing team.

“This is exactly what the sport has been looking for, for a long time.  And we’re seeing championship-winning drivers drop what they’re currently doing to join in – it really will be a series of champions,” said Baird.

Narrowly missing repeat wins in both the NZV8 and Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championships this past race season; Baird can’t wait to line up against fellow V8 Supercar driver Greg Murphy in the purpose-built new race car category.

Along with Melbourne-based Murphy, a list of former V8 touring car champions have already committed to the seven round series, including three-time winner John McIntyre, two-time winners Andy Booth and Paul Manuell. (more…)

Current New Zealand V8s champion Craig Baird is pleased to be back in his home town of Hamilton ahead of this weekend’s final round of the 2010/2011 V8s championship that wraps up this weekend at the ITM 400 street race.

The birth place of the 25-time New Zealand champion, Baird returns to his child-hood haunts placed second in the seven-round season standings.  Trailing current leader Angus Fogg by 32 points, Baird will have additional support this weekend from his New Zealand born wife and two children.

“It’s always nice to race in New Zealand, having spent so much of my life racing all round the world, there is no place like home,” says the now Gold Coast based Kiwi.

“Hamilton is a mega place to race; it’s a good atmosphere and there are plenty of people, plenty of home-town support, especially if you’re a V8 Supercar driver, of which unfortunately I won’t be one this weekend.”

Describing his favourite part of the 3.4 kilometre concrete wall lined course, Baird says street circuits are often void of good spectator vantage points, but Hamilton has one unique location that is well seen by drivers during their racing:  “The roundabout, which is turn three.  You get the feeling of the big grandstand and the United Video building – it’s almost like an amphitheatre, like they have in supercross.” (more…)

The 2010/2011 edition of the BNT V8s Championship has had some exciting racing from its beginning last November and as drivers head into the final round at Hamilton next weekend, the title will be decided in what will be a crowd pleasing  three-way street fight.

Once again the V8 category will be a major support act to the Australian V8 Supercars contesting the ITM 400 but this year features the final  round of New Zealand’s premier motor racing championship rather than a stand-alone trophy outing. Frankly, it would be hard to find a better script with three of the country’s top drivers covered by a mere 44 points with a total of 225 points to be raced for over the weekend.

The driver in the box seat is Auckland’s Angus Fogg (LG / Newstalk ZB Falcon) who has all but led the points table from Round 1 and arrives at Hamilton with a slender lead of just 32 points. The popular “Foggy” has had more than his share of ups and downs but has kept the important points tally ticking over through consistency which has been his main strategy throughout the season.

The man many favour to top the points at the right time – namely at the end of the final race – is Hamilton’s international racing star Craig Baird whose United Video Falcon actually led the points table for a week between Rounds 3 and 4. The master tactician will be stalking Fogg all weekend and with immense international experience in his favour could be the man to watch when the lights go out for Saturday’s opening race.

Never to be discounted but with a tougher task ahead is Nelson driver John McIntyre (Blackwoods Paykels Protector Safety Falcon) who must gain a 44 point advantage to overhaul the leader and a 12 point advantage to tip Baird out of the runner-up spot. Considering his superb performances on street circuits (in BNT V8s and V8 Supercars) together with the fact he has won twice as many races this season as any other driver (six wins to Fogg’s three) it is a target “Johnny Mac” will be well and truly capable of achieving. (more…)

This weekend’s (11–13 March) penultimate round of the NZ V8s championship at Taupo puts defending champion Craig Baird in a pressure position to reel in the 45-points needed to get the series lead.

Currently sitting in second overall on 792 points after five of the seven rounds on the 2010/2011 summer series calendar, Baird says the coming weekend is more about driver ability. Leading the series is Angus Fogg with 829 series points.

Baird is piloting the #1 United Video Racing Ford and the Gold Coast based Kiwi has three races worth a possible 225 championship points ahead:

“Taupo’s race circuit is one where you can drag a lot more of the lap time out of being in the seat, as opposed to just relying on horsepower – it’s a track more reliant on driver ability,” he said.  “Plus after our engine got hot at the recent Manfeild race round, we’ve got a newie for the Taupo weekend.”

But it’s not a point the father of two ranks as taking up the most of his recent thinking time.  With 25 New Zealand championship titles to his name, Baird says he’d give-up the hard fought accolades in an instant if he could re-unite a broken family from any one of the recent disasters.

“As a nation of Kiwi’s we’ve had a tough time this race season.  We started in the wake of September’s Canterbury earthquake, then the Pike River mining tragedy and now the recent devastation in Christchurch. to bring home someone’s mother, sister, brother or father for any one of my championship wins – I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

“I was reading a newspaper here in Australia and there was a picture of a father, son and daughter, who’d just been given news their mother wouldn’t be ever coming home after the 22 February Christchurch quake.  It puts your whole life in to a new perspective, especially as a father, you have an empathy, a wanting to do anything to change the situation.” (more…)

Defending New Zealand V8 champion driver Craig Baird says this weekend’s 11 — 13 February race weekend at Manfeild will be a challenge he is capable of turning to his advantage in the race for the 2010/2011 title.

Currently second in the standings, Baird’s United Video Racing team Ford has already had a share of the title lead before a disastrous final race at the last round near Timaru.  Baird now trails leader Angus Fogg by 56 points after the fourth of seven rounds.

“It’s been a track we’ve done very well at in the past,” said the Queensland based Kiwi.  “Getting pole position like we have in the past does set the theme for the weekend.”

“Certainly getting solid points in the first two races is important, but surviving the final reverse grid race is just as crucial — that’s the sealer to your weekend and what un-did us at Timaru. A track like Manfeild is very good for the final race; being open with the cambered corners you can have a good crack because of the higher number of passing opportunities.  A championship is about finishing every race — one position ahead of your rivals.”

And that’s what Baird says is the luck factor motorsport has as an Achilles heel:  “We’ll all have a bad race somewhere along the lines and I’d like to think that bit of bad luck is now behind me — the fortune scales can swing back.

Reinforcing the point, the reason Baird was forced to retire at the series fourth round near Timaru was from an impact that created a mechanical failure.  Dropping oil from the car’s rear differential Baird was amid a flurry of cars that slid from the track on the slick surface conditions.

Investigating what caused the failure, team head Garry Pedersen found a large impact to the rear of the #1 United Video Racing Ford set in motion a chain reaction.

“A massive hit in the rear side of the car broke the Watts linkage pin that holds the rear differential in place.  The impact also sheared mounting bolts in the rear, which allowed the diff to move, pulling the centre out of it — and allowing its contents to spill on the track,” said Pedersen. (more…)

Defending V8 champion Craig Baird had a steady weekend of action at Timaru up-ended in the weekend’s fourth round of the BNT V8s championship when mechanical failure in the United Video Ford forced him from the final race.

Heading in to the series half-way mark with a ten point lead in the standings, Baird was planning on at least consolidating his position and hopefully extending the advantage.  Instead he now sits second — 56 points behind.

“Motor racing is about doing your best in the most extreme of conditions and that requires as much luck as preparation,” said the multiple New Zealand champion.

“We showed great pace early in the weekend and that carried through to the first qualifying session.  The first race went really well — it was fantastic to be racing so close when so often you find the cars so evenly matched that you can’t overtake.”

That was the case for the second 12-lap race where Baird tried in vain to pass the Ford of Kayne Scott to try reclaiming his points lead from Angus Fogg.

“I was a little frustrated in the second race, as until the guy in front makes a mistake then passing is difficult.  But in saying that the real weekend turner is in the final race where if you keep clear of the carnage makers you can get easy points.”

Expecting results from that theory, Baird’s 17th position on the grid for the 22-lap reverse-grid finale meant he’d have plenty of opportunity to re-take the lead.¨Up to tenth position by the half-way mark, the United Video Racing team Ford was still in the points hunt for weekend honours.

“At the end of the back straight a hole blew in the rear differential and dumped all the oil out in one massive spot,” said Baird retrospectively of the race ending incident. (more…)

Angus Fogg is back in the lead of the BNT V8s championship points-table after winning this weekend’s round in Timaru. The North Shore-based LG Motorsport driver started the weekend in fine style, securing pole position for the first race with a blistering lap time of 1:06.000 around Timaru’s 2.4km circuit.

‘Foggy’ then made it look simple, putting together two start-to-finish race victories.

“We’re stoked. It can’t be any better than this, to win two races, win the round and get back into the championship lead. Actually, in the first race, Kayne [Scott] had caught up and the finishing margin was pretty close, but we did some work on the car between races and had a more comfortable margin by the time the chequered flag was waved for the second race.” said Fogg.

The third reverse grid race of NZV8s’ weekend is commonly described as a lottery and Fogg certainly had an element of luck just to finish the race and earn some points. Having started right at the back of the 19-strong field, Fogg took things relatively easy in the LG-ZB Falcon as he worked quietly past slower competitors. Midway through the 22-lap race, Craig Baird’s car had a mechanical failure, spilling oil across the circuit. Fogg, like several others, hit the oil and ploughed off the circuit into the tyre wall. Despite more than one car bouncing off the dented LG-ZB Falcon, Fogg was fortunate to be able to get the car out of the pile-up, back onto the track, and around to the pits.

“While the race was red-flagged and the other cars pulled in, the guys worked swiftly to get our car in some sort of shape to finish the race. Even though the LG-ZB Falcon is pretty dinged up — most panels are wrecked and the rear spoiler is gone — the main thing is we were able to restart and then finish the race in a very reasonable ninth place. If Craig hadn’t had that issue, who knows what would have happened? But we can be proud of our car preparation and team work — that’s all part of it. Now we have some work to do on the car obviously — quite a lot of work to fit in around a lot of racing in other cars before 12 and 13 February when we’re back in the LG-ZB Falcon at Manfeild. We’ll be doing our best to make sure the car’s in top form and aim to do it all again then!” (more…)

Defending New Zealand V8 champion Craig Baird says this weekend’s third round of the series is the right time to ease in to the title lead with this weekend’s race action at Teretonga near Invercargill (14-16 January 2011).

Currently placed second, 15 points from the lead in the #1 United Video Racing Ford Falcon, the Gold Coast based Kiwi regards the southern set three-race weekend as one of the season highlights.

“It’s always got a bit of history and racing nostalgia.  The passion from the spectators; the way they turn up with cattle trucks, make shift homes — you just never know what’s going to appear on the embankments,” said Baird.

Famed for being the world’s most southern race circuit, Teretonga is one of the most demanding.  A long straight and constant radius turns test the car and driver ability equally over the 2.61 kilometre course.

“It has what has to be one of the most challenging corners in the country — the fast turn-one is a great spot for overtaking action.  The combination and style of circuit make quite unique — one I’ll always like pounding round.”

“So provided we do well in the scratch races the points’ difference means we only need a couple more spots in the final reversed race to improve our championship position and get the lead.  We haven’t quite had the car how we’d like at the first two rounds.  We’ve been close, but not quite as good as we wanted.  But in saying that we haven’t done any testing, so we’re on the catch-up and have more to gain during the year unlike most others because of that.”

“The new improved brake package mean it is getting tougher for the reverse grid race.  You’re now getting guys in championship contention being held back by other cars — because of their better brakes.  They’re not laying down and letting people go anymore — they’re fighting until the bitter end.”

(more…)