Green Light #5

GREEN-LIGHT #5

4 May 2012 - Issue No,5

www.jmr.co.nz

We have now had the third round of the exciting V8SuperTourers series. Just last weekend was our first round at the popu-lar Manfeild circuit in Feilding just outside Palmerston North. Manfeild is the first circuit I ever drove on, aged 13, in my fearsome (not) Fiat 127. I think my best lap time in my first race day was 1m 48 seconds. Last weekend my best time in my new V8SuperTourer was 1m 8 seconds. We entered Manfeild with the series lead and probably our best preparation yet. Our race-shop in Taupo is continuing to develop into an excellent facility. The Taupo-based team put in many hours between Ruapuna and leaving for Manfeild to have both cars ready for Friday’s first practice. At the last minute we were held up by gearbox parts coming in from the UK, meaning the team had a late night at the track on Thursday to complete my #47 car. On Thursday the whole team had arrived including Steve Richards from Australia - it was Steve’s first look at the circuit that his father, Jim, has won many races on. The V8SuperTourers development continues and on Friday we were giving a new engine map by way of an updated computer programme. This engine map was developed to try and smooth out the ac-celeration from 5%-25% of throttle. With over 730 NM of torque, the V8SuperTourer’s 7-litre engine just likes to spin the rear tyres at low revs, so the new engine map smoothed out this part of the throttle. It was good timing because just 10 laps into the Friday 90 minute practice, the rain came down causing us all to go onto wet tyres. We hadn’t used the wet-spec Hankook tyres before so we were trying to learn as much as we could while the track was fully wet. We also needed to consider that every car only had eight wet tyres to get through the whole weekend! I did just one lap on my new wet tyres and was amazed at how much grip they had. My time on that lap was 1m 12.9s, faster than our old NZV8 had ever been in the middle of summer on slick tyres... Steve also enjoyed driving the track in both the dry and wet and was comfortable and on the pace. On Saturday the weather was overcast and showering all day. Qualifying started wet but we all knew it would dry out. The trick was to try and put a lap in early (a banker lap) and then wait for the track to dry and put in another lap. I came in and went onto slick tyres; I went out and it was very slippery; I changed my mind and came back in for wets again. Steve had changed to slicks and like all other drivers on slicks tried for 20 minutes to get temperature into the tyre on a slowly drying track. I’d say if the session had run for one minute long Steve would have been on pole position.


Welcome to our fifth edition of Green Light.


About our Manfeild weekend cont... Luckily for me, we put in a time good enough for sixth on the grid while pole position went to Jonny Reid who just did one lap on his wets right at the end. Steve was closing in on my times very quickly and ended eighth. The first race of 20 laps started dry but with some puddles on the track. We all started on slick tyres and spent the first two laps of the warm-up trying hard to get the tyres to stick to the track! I slipped back to seventh at the start but felt the car was really well balanced and started to charge forward. There is a new rule that doesn’t permit blocking except for on the first lap or on the last two laps. This rule was definitely brought in after I won the race at Ruapuna, using the earlier rule to my full advantage. So what this means is that each car has to drive on its ‘qualifying’ lines - these lines are the fastest way around the circuit and usually on the outside of the corners on the entry. This leaves the inside of the corner totally open to a driver wanting to pass. That was ME! I managed to move my way up to third position by lap four and then set out to chase down Greg Murphy. The car was fantastic and I pushed hard to catch and then pass Murph on turn seven, ducking down the inside under brakes. By that time Jonny Reid had a three second lead. The car was brilliant so I pushed for the remaining laps and reduced his lead to just one second at the finish. We earned 20 bonus points for fastest lap and the first V8SuperTourer lap record, 1m.08.747, at Manfeild. Steve worked his way forward but then slipped up on the ripple strips exiting turn seven; the train of cars he had just passed then passed him and he finished eighth! The team had minor work to do for Sunday’s races, and we were very well prepared. I felt very confident in the car (maybe too confident) - I was adamant that I would pass Reid in the first truly dry race of the weekend and take back the championship lead. On the opening lap Murph passed me but I quickly got him back at turn five. I then set off after Reid and within two laps was right on his bumper coming down the front straight. I tried to out-brake him down the inside but I went in too deep and overshot the corner, slipping down to fourth. I was driving impatiently (not like me) and, in trying to pass other cars, damaged my steering. The only person I was happy to see pass me was Steve in the #556 CRC car. He had great pace and took off after Murphy in third. I struggled with an unbalanced car that wanted to lock the inside front tyres.


About our Manfeild weekend cont...With eight laps to go we saw the biggest crash yet in a V8SuperTourer - it happened right behind me. Colin Corkery exited turn seven with young Andre Heimgartner behind him and there was contact just as the two cars were going through the kink in the front straight. Corkery’s car was flung into the tyre/concrete wall. It was great to know that he was physically fine after such a massive accident. The car sustained a lot of damage, but most of it was cosmetic and the chassis and driver safety cell did its job to protect him. We had a restart and I was promoted back to fifth. Steve restarted in third but was passed just at the start. He remained fourth, agonisingly close to his and the #556 CRC car’s first po-dium. I struggled my way around to finish seventh and was very disappointed in my performance. During the break between races we had another well-attended driver autograph signing session with the Manfeild fans. It is great to see how in such a short time the following that V8Su-perTourers have amassed. Even on a cold and overcast Manawatu day, the crowd piled in, filling most of the spectator areas. Just before we were to leave pit lane for race three, the rain came down. We changed onto new wets; I gridded up in third behind Reid and Murphy and Steve was starting fifth, his high-est start in a feature race. Although the track was wet, with a 30 lap race we knew that unless the rain came down heavily that the track would dry and we would have to drive very care-fully on the wet tyres, so they didn’t fall to pieces! I was fourth at the start and then slowly picked off the cars in front to be second by lap seven, with Murphy pulling away. I was driving with my tyres in mind and was happy to see Murphy punishing his tyres out front. Steve was very close to passing me early on but his tyres then faded and he would finish sixth. I was catching Murphy too slowly, at about 0.3s per lap - that’s what I though the tyres could handle. In the last two laps I closed the gap by three seconds per lap and we had the crowd on their feet as I was on his bumper as he crossed the line. I was happy with the second place and our third straight podium in the feature races. Overall I was disappointed with my performance but this is the reminder I needed to concentrate on the championship and not the individual wins! We go to Hampton Downs now knowing that we will be on the pace. I know we can win the Sprint Championship as we are only 88 points behind Jonny Reid. It’s all up to us to deliver and we are now in the position to do that. I also think at Hampton Downs that Steve will be fighting for his first pole position and race wins, as this will be the first track he has been to twice! Hampton Downs is on June 1, 2 and 3 (Queen’s Birthday weekend) so we have a good period of time to have the two cars ready and work on the small details. I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible as we aim to take out the Sprint Championship and collect more V8SuperTourer trophies.


Key highlights from Manfeild

• First-ever V8SuperTourer event at Manfeild• John set the first lap record for a V8SuperTourer at Manfeild with a time of 1:08.747 in the first race• Steve was very close to a podium finish, coming home fourth in race two• John scored his third straight feature race podium finish at Manfeild in race three as Steve was en-

couraged by the #556 CRC Ford setting the third quickest time of the race• Our website delivered 17,167 pages to our fans, soaking up 7.26GB of data traffic


Daily report: Manfeild, Saturday 28 April

Johnny Mac described Saturday’s early afternoon qualifying session as tricky. “We had 30 minutes which started with a wet track while the sun broke through the intermittent showers we’d been having all morning. We went out on wets, back in for slicks. There were quick times on wets as the slicks took time to come up to temperature. It was a bit of a funny session and I ended up on the third row beside Kayne Scott while Jonny Reid had pole.”

Race one started in sunshine while the track was still wet and greasy. Everyone was on slicks and John hit solid line of flowing water on the track at turn one which dropped him back to seventh. John says: “Then it was head down and charging as I worked back through the field to hunt down Murph who was second. Out in front, Jonny Reid had a big lead of more than three seconds. With nearly half the race still to run, I had to get past Murph. I made a big lunge for the inside line on the last sweeper and got through into second, then set off to chase down Jonny. The last lap was my quickest and I’d cut Jonny’s lead to just 1.127 seconds. Setting the quickest lap time of the race comes with bonus points and the honour of holding the lap record. Clearly the #47 Talley’s Ford was the quickest out there, so all in all a great drive.”

Steve reckons if he’d had one more complete lap in qualifying his ninth place could have been quite different. “There was only two tenths of a second between my final time and being on the second row. The race itself was pretty good, but I did get boxed in a couple of times and had to find my way out of that. Eighth place was good, the car is good and things are looking positive.”

JMR Manfeild photo gallery

12 April 2012 - Issue No,4


Saturday, 28 AprilQualifying

Pos No. Name Best time In lap Best speed Diff Gap Laps1 2 Jonny Reid 1:11.438 10 152.692 102 15 Paul Manuell 1:11.737 4 152.055 0.299 0.299 93 51 Greg Murphy 1:11.866 15 151.782 0.428 0.129 164 5 Andy Knight 1:12.001 17 151.498 0.563 0.135 175 99 Kayne Scott 1:12.026 7 151.445 0.588 0.025 96 47 John McIntyre 1:12.028 7 151.441 0.590 0.002 127 69 Eddie Bell 1:12.140 18 151.206 0.702 0.112 188 10 Richard Moore 1:12.157 13 151.170 0.719 0.017 149 556 Steven Richards 1:12.232 15 151.013 0.794 0.075 1610 27 Craig Baird 1:12.344 17 150.780 0.906 0.112 1711 23 Andy Booth 1:12.347 11 150.773 0.909 0.003 1712 96 Ant Pedersen 1:12.927 1 149.574 1.489 0.580 813 66 Colin Corkery 1:13.065 18 149.292 1.627 0.138 1814 22 Andre Heimgartner 1:13.198 17 149.020 1.760 0.133 19

Race results: Round 3Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding


Saturday, 28 AprilRace 1, 20 laps

Pos No. Name Laps Total time Diff Best time In lap Best speed1 2 Jonny Reid 20 23:33.928 1:09.104 19 157.8492 47 John McIntyre 20 23:35.055 1.127 1:08.747 20 158.6693 51 Greg Murphy 20 23:37.076 3.148 1:08.924 20 158.2614 96 Ant Pedersen 20 23:50.337 16.409 1:09.550 12 156.8375 69 Eddie Bell 20 23:51.515 17.587 1:09.142 20 157.7626 27 Craig Baird 20 23:56.884 22.956 1:10.112 17 155.5807 5 Andy Knight 20 24:00.696 26.768 1:09.583 20 156.7628 556 Steven Richards 20 24:02.987 29.059 1:09.675 12 156.5559 15 Paul Manuell 20 24:03.354 29.426 1:10.273 19 155.22310 99 Kayne Scott 20 24:04.361 30.433 1:09.466 20 157.02611 66 Colin Corkery 20 24:17.368 43.440 1:10.813 20 154.04012 22 Andre Heimgartner 20 24:43.245 1:09.317 1:11.189 12 153.22613 10 Richard Moore 20 24:44.574 1:10.646 1:11.318 19 152.949Not classifiedDNF 23 Andy Booth 8 10:00.318 1:12.721 8 149.998



Daily report: Manfeild, Sunday 29 April

Race two on Sunday morning saw Steve in the thick of an exciting battle with Andy Knight and Greg Murphy during the red flag-interrupted 25-lapper, while John acknowledged some errors as he started in second behind Reid, Saturday’s race winner. Steve was eventually being pipped for third by Murph while John had a clash with Eddie Bell which left the #47 Talley’s Ford not steering properly. “I was lucky finish seventh after the race was red-flagged and restarted due to Colin Corkery’s crash. Basically it was all about trying to make the best of a bad situation!”

Race three – 30 laps – saw John score his third straight feature race podium finish. “I was just one corner away from tackling eventual race winner Greg Murphy and had to settle for second. Murph pushed hard from early on,” said John who started third on the grid. “Our team planned for me to take it a bit easier – we were all on the wet-spec Hankook tyres but the track was virtually dry within ten laps. I got passed Jonny Reid and Andy Knight in the opening seven laps, but was more than six seconds adrift of Murph by the race’s halfway point. We worked out the time needed to catch Murph, but in the end it came down to a battle of tyre strategy and Murph judged it just that little bit better. However to be the only driver to have finished on the podium of the feature race at all three rounds is a credit to the whole crew at JMR.”

Steve started from fifth and finished sixth in the feature race to improve to eighth position on the championship points-table. John is currently in second on the sprint championship points-table with one round to go at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in early June.


Sunday, 29 AprilRace 2, 25 laps

Pos No. Name Laps Total time Diff Best time In lap Best speed1 2 Jonny Reid 25 32:32.358 1:08.184 7 159.9792 5 Andy Knight 25 32:33.849 1.491 1:08.557 11 159.1083 51 Greg Murphy 25 32:34.102 1.744 1:08.197 15 159.9484 556 Steven Richards 25 32:34.537 2.179 1:08.302 10 159.7025 23 Andy Booth 25 32:35.371 3.013 1:08.521 13 159.1926 96 Ant Pedersen 25 32:35.899 3.541 1:08.496 9 159.2507 47 John McIntyre 25 32:38.314 5.956 1:08.496 2 159.2508 22 Andre Heimgartner 25 32:42.219 9.861 1:08.767 8 158.6239 27 Craig Baird 25 32:43.466 11.108 1:08.878 9 158.36710 99 Kayne Scott 25 32:43.711 11.353 1:08.728 8 158.71311 10 Richard Moore 25 32:50.983 18.625 1:08.714 11 158.74512 69 Eddie Bell 16 32:49.539 9 Laps 1:08.501 2 159.239Not classifiedDNF 66 Colin Corkery 15 18:05.265 1:09.095 8 157.870DNF 15 Paul Manuell 6 7:41.400 1:09.453 2 157.056



Sunday, 29 AprilRace 3, 30 laps

Pos No. Name Laps Total time Diff Best time In lap Best speed1 51 Greg Murphy 30 36:47.994 1:12.131 3 151.2252 47 John McIntyre 30 36:48.210 0.216 1:12.490 5 150.4763 10 Richard Moore 30 36:49.816 1.822 1:11.932 4 151.6434 15 Paul Manuell 30 36:53.817 5.823 1:12.330 7 150.8095 2 Jonny Reid 30 37:00.954 12.960 1:12.552 3 150.3476 556 Steven Richards 30 37:09.166 21.172 1:12.308 6 150.8557 99 Kayne Scott 30 37:09.636 21.642 1:12.807 6 149.8218 27 Craig Baird 30 37:11.582 23.588 1:12.784 5 149.8689 96 Ant Pedersen 30 37:17.507 29.513 1:12.529 4 150.39510 5 Andy Knight 30 37:27.786 39.792 1:12.525 3 150.40311 69 Eddie Bell 30 37:29.992 41.998 1:12.799 4 149.83712 23 Andy Booth 29 37:17.443 1 Lap 1:09.748 24 156.39213 22 Andre Heimgartner 29 37:26.616 9.173 1:13.247 6 148.921Not classified (75% = 23 Laps)DNS 66 Colin Corkery 0 --:--:--.--- --:--:--.--- 0 -



Driver Qual Race 1 FL Race 2 FL Race 3 FL Round OverallJonny Reid 70 210 210 20 151 661 1st 1626 1stJohn McIntyre 41 180 20 106 207 554 3rd 1538 2ndGreg Murphy 57 162 162 240 621 2nd 1246 4thKayne Scott 46 77 77 122 322 9th 1252 3rdAnt Pedersen 0 146 118 99 363 6th 1240 5thCraig Baird 27 118 86 110 341 8th 1153 6thAndy Booth 0 131 72 20 223 13th 1038 7thSteven Richards 30 96 162 136 424 5th 1030 8thEddie Bell 37 131 63 80 311 11th 883 10thAndy Knight 51 106 180 89 426 4th 894 9thAndre Heimgartner 0 63 96 65 224 12th 768 11thFabian Coulthard 0 0 757 12thRichard Moore 33 56 70 186 345 7th 717 13thPaul Manuell 63 86 168 317 10th 676 14thScott McLaughlin 0 585 15thGeoff Emery 0 0 434 16thColin Corkery 0 70 0 70 14th 293 17th

V8SuperTourer points after round 3

JMR Manfeild photo gallery



Where we’ve been seen:

Nelson Mail - 4 April

BOP Times - 27 AprilOzRacingWrap - 30 Aprilwww.v8st.co.nz - 24 April


Where we’ve been seen - web linksV8Super Tourers: Manfeild Autocourse Feilding: Qualifyinghttp://ondemand.tv3.co.nz/Motorsport-Super-Tourers-Manfeild-Autocourse-Feilding-Qualifying

V8Super Tourers: Manfeild Autocourse Feilding: Race 1http://ondemand.tv3.co.nz/Motorsport-Super-Tourers-Manfeild-Autocourse-Feilding-Race-1



John McIntyre now ranked in the worlds driver list!“It is an obvious sign that V8SuperTourers has created a lot of international recognition. The category is now included in the Castrol Edge World Driver Rankings along with every top racing category in the world. There are some illustrious names heading the list, including Formula 1 and Nascar stars. I’m honoured to be ranked 678th in the world, and 127th in the 2012 standings. They may have my nationality wrong but its a great achievement for myself and the V8SuperTourers that they are being acknowl-edged”

http://www.castroledgerankings.com/driver/john-mcintyre


Next round:We return to Hampton Downs for the final round of the sprint series 1-3 June.

Hospitality packages are also available, further ticket and information can be found on www.v8supertourers.co.nz

2012 V8SuperTourer Calendar

Sprint ChampionshipRound 1*: 17-19 February – Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, North Waikato Round 2: 7-8 April – Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, ChristchurchRound 3*: 27-29 April – Manfeild, FeildingRound 4*: 1-3 June – Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, North Waikato

Endurance ChampionshipRound 5:* August/September TBARound 6 *: 26-28 October - 500KM International, Pukekohe Park RacewayRound 7(FINAL): 23-25 November - Powerbuilt Tools Raceway Christchurch

* Events which feature the 2012 V8Challenge Cup

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