|
|
www.conceptmotorsport.co.nz
|
Media
release
Monday 16th January 2012
BNT V8s Championship 2011-12
Round 3 - Teretonga Park Invercargill
13-15th January 2012 |
| Ross' Holden Right on
Target |
|
 |
|
|
BNT V8s
driver Nick Ross said his car was 'quick out pf the box' for the first
round of the new year at Teretonga Park Invercargill.
Images:
LittleDevilMotorsportMedia (left) SportProMedia (right)
|
|
|
Cambridge
driver Nick Ross said his Holden Commodore was 'quick right out of the
box' when he and the Concept Motorsport racing team hit the circuit at
Invercargill's Teretonga Park at the weekend.
Three strong race results from the weekend sees him and the Total
Lubricants Holden move into fifth place in the BNT V8s Championship
standings putting him in line with the team's goals for this season
where they hope to finish in the top five and improve on their ninth
place from the previous season.
Putting in a stunner for the Top 10 Shootout Ross came up with the
fourth fastest time in the one lap contest and fastest Holden in a Ford
dominated lineup.
"Of course we gave the car a good check out over the break but our
engineer Dale (Harvey) put some ideas into action with the set up which
seemed to work and gave us a strong package."
"We were pretty happy with qualification especially with it being the
first time on slicks after all the rain beforehand. It went well and
the car was quick straight out of box." said Ross.
Ross hit the track at speed in the opening race scooping his first
podium of 2012 with a third place behind V8 Supercar driver Jason
Bargwanna who was closely followed by Hamilton's Martin Short.
"In the first race I got Tim (Edgell) off the start and just started
pulling away from him but just couldn't keep in touch with the front
two."
That solid effort however didn't help Ross for the reverse gridded race
two where he would start from the rear of the field. Unfortunately the
handicap hindered Ross further when he couldn't aquire the start he was
looking for.
"I was near the back anyway but I just lost traction and went all the
way to the back at the start of that race." said Ross.
However Ross never gave up and as he battled on he made a remarkable
recovery and moved up the field and into fourth place before the end of
the race.
The final race of the weekend offered up a team challenge by way of a
compulsory pitstop and with the weather becoming unstable the field was
split in tactics with most drivers on wet tyres and a couple rolling
the dice and entering the pitlane at the last minute to swap over to
slick tyres.
"There were a couple of guys who put on slicks but then it started to
rain again by lap three so they had no chance." said Ross.
"We tried something different in our setup hoping to close the gap but
just didn't have the speed we needed to get into the lead. We picked up
some time on Tim with our pitstop and gained some ground on him
eventually passing him for fourth place." he said.
Ross once again finished fourth and the crack Concept Motorsport team
clocked the second fastest time in the compulsory pitstop where they
were required to remove one wheel completely and replace it.
"The pace was very close throughout the whole field and there was such
a good effort from the team which resulted in a great result. We were
the fastest Holden and have moved up into fifth place in the standings."
"I'm looking forward to this weekend at Timaru and I hope we can have
more of the same or even make an improvement of what was a very good
weekend for us." said Ross.
"We are only 48 points away from third place in the championship
standings so we may have to re-think our targets and look for a podium
finish to the season." he said.
This weekend of 20-22nd January 2012 at Timaru International Motor
Raceway is round four of the BNT V8s Championship 2011-12 and is
traditionally a very popular event with the local spectators who come
in numbers.
The Holden versus Ford action is also televised on TV3 with all three
BNT V8s races shown this Sunday 22nd January.
|
|
|
|
|
 2011-12
Calendar |
|
Rd 1
|
4-6 Nov 2011
|
Pukekohe Park Raceway |
Rd 2
|
9-11 Dec 2011
|
Powerbuilt Raceway Ruapuna
|
Rd 3
|
13-15 Jan 2012
|
Teretonga Park Raceway |
Rd 4
|
20-22 Jan 2012
|
Timaru Motor Raceway |
Rd 5
|
10-12 Feb 2012
|
Manfeild Circuit |
Rd 6
|
9-11 Mar 2012
|
Taupo Motorsport Park |
|
|
|
|
|
|
