Green Light #6

GREEN-LIGHT #6

14 June 2012 - Issue No,6

www.jmr.co.nz

Hi everyone and welcome to our sixth edition of Green Light and the headline I was hoping for!

As many of you will now know through TV3’s Gillette Motorsport show, TV3 news, the internet and newspapers like NZ Herald, we have won the sprint title in the inaugural season of V8SuperTourers.

This is a great achievment for the team at JMR considering the challenges we have faced in relocating the team to Taupo and running two V8SuperTourers and the V8Challenge Cup car. We ended the sprint championship with a narrow (2 point!) margin over Jonny Reid and, to keep up the good work, we’ll need more fast and cosistant performances in the two-driver endurance races starting at Taupo Motorsport Park on Father’s Day (2 September).

The records show:• we won one feature race (Ruapuna) • had four second places (Hampton Downs Round 1, Ruapuna Race 1, Manfeild Race 1 and 3) • and finished third once (Hampton Downs Round 4)

However what is more significant is our worst result of the season, ninth in race 1 this season. When we qualified 13th for the first race and then went onto finish ninth, I said to the team that it had to be our worst result of the season. And so far, it has been.

Our sprint title win is as much down to the team’s preparation as it is our on-track performance. We all agreed that we could not afford a DNF (did not finish) and that this first season would be about consistancy. We set our goal of complet-ing every race better than ninth position, and it has worked. To have set and achieved that goal makes me very proud of the whole team at JMR.


V8SuperTourer sprint champions!


A wrap-up from round 4 at Hampton DownsWe had very high expectations for this round after coming on very strong at Ruapuna and Manfeild. We went to the track with a completely different set-up to the first round at Hampton Downs, but it still wasn’t good enough. My engineer Jason Liefting and I probably confused ourselves by the time Friday practice had finished. We had adjusted nearly everything on the car but we just couldn’t make it work. On Saturday morning in the practice session we ran new tyres to see what our true pace was, we were in essence 0.2s off Jonny Reid and 0.5s off Scott McLauglin who was fastest all weekend. Although we were close, the car could only do that time for one lap and it then deteriorated.

We went into qualifying with a slightly different set-up but most of our plans went down the drain when I crashed on the exit of pit lane! This was a first (and hopefully last) for me! When these Hankook tyres are brand new, they are very slippery, so I carefully exited pit lane at about 50 kp/h in third gear. But then I put my foot into it and the big 7-litre V8 caused the car to snap on me. I couldn’t recover the slide and it felt like slow motion as I slid onto the grass and into the barrier. Apart from the embarrassment, from inside the car I thought it was quite badly damaged. The steering wheel wasn’t pointing straight and I am sure we had just given away the championship. But when I arrived back in the pits the JMR team quickly had the car up on the air-jacks, assessing the damage. Incredibly, everything was safe to continue - although it didn’t feel quite right, the team were happy enough to send me back out. My first laps on these tyres were less than accurate, but I came in to change onto the next set and found some speed right on the last lap of qualifying, finishing with a time of 1.04.4 and ninth on the grid – a good effort considering that we could have been starting off the back without any qualifying points.

In Saturday’s race one, #47 handled reasonably well and I was able to make a great start and then hold onto seventh for most of the race. Near the end, Jonny Reid’s team-mate Ant Pedersen pulled off to the side of the track with a gearbox fail-ure and then I passed Andy Knight with two laps to go. I finished fifth which was a solid effort, but Jonny Reid, who had the championship lead coming into this round, finished third and extended his lead over me.

On Sunday morning we held an excellent team meeting that I think was the catayst for our sprint title win. Everyone in the team had their input on the small things that we could improve on, including the driver who crashed in qualifying! As a team we certainly performed better over the rest of the day and we will take those lessons into the rest of the year. In race two we started fifth and the car was the best it had been all weekend, not good enough to win but good enough to fight in the top five. During that race Reid was ahead of us again until his car also stopped with a gearbox failure. I drove onto third place and our sixth podium finish of the season. We were in the lead now by 60 points going into the last race.


A wrap-up from round 4 at Hampton Downs cont...Everything looked good for Sunday’s final race. We narrowly made it for the race start. Other teams had reported an issue with the fuel system and so we only just finished checking our system before we were due to leave the pit lane. We were third on the grid with Reid tenth. We made some minor adjustments to the car to try and improve its drive off the last corner and its stability into turn two. We got it wrong! What we have found with the V8SuperTourers is they work in a very small set-up window and we had just moved outside of that (again)!. I still had Reid behind me for most of the race until my gearbox had a few issues of its own. About 10 laps into the 35-lapper, I went to change to fifth gear but it changed back into fourth! This went on intermittently for the next 25 laps and I lost places, dropping all the way to ninth. I could see Reid in the distance moving into fourth and I thought I needed another position to win the title. Normally I would have had the team telling me the points situation in my radio, but static in my earpiece meant that I had to un-plug the radio cord. I managed to pass Paul Manuell with two laps to go but I still didn’t know if that was enough for the championship.

Coming onto the main straight for the last time I had Manuell about four car lengths behind me. On the run up to the line, the gearbox decided to go from fourth to sixth in one go - I just managed to get it back into fifth and power over the line, just 0.2s ahead of Manuell. I drove around on the parade lap, thinking we hadn’t done it. I went to drive the car into pit lane but the team were there to meet me, telling me I had to reverse back and drive to the podium so we could celebrate!

To say that was a relief is a massive understatement. Now we can focus on improving our understanding of how the car works best by testing at Taupo. We move into the two-driver endurance phase of the championship now with young Kiwi star Jono Lester joining me in #47 for the three endurance races. I have chosen Jono because he is a young Kiwi with a great pedigree having raced Porsches in New Zealand and overseas. He is currently driving a Mercedes Benz in a key Japanese endurance series, so he’s race-fit and ready to go [See page 24 for more.] We will be out testing with Jono and the endurance driver for Steve Ricahrds’ #556 car next Wednesday at Taupo Motorsport Park. More to come on the announcement of that driver soon!

Even though we have a mid-season break from racing, it’s still busy! After completing two ride days in the next fortnight we will strip the cars down completely and start preparing them for the two-driver races. We will then take the cars and transporter to CRC Speedshow at Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds on 21-22 July.

Remember the first two-driver endurance race will be at Taupo on 2 September (Father’s Day). Look for more details on ticket pricing and hospitality packages in the coming weeks.


Key highlights from the Hampton Downs weekend

• Regained the championship lead after the Sunday morning 25-lap race.• Finished the final race for the sprint championship in eighth - 0.2sec ahead of being ninth.• The race position left us with a winning margin of two points for the championship title.• John recorded his sixth podium result (3rd in race 2) in the sprint series - most of any driver.• Steve finished 10th overall in the standings out of 19 drivers.

JMR Hampton Downs photo gallery



Saturday, 2 JuneQualifying

Pos No. Name Best time In lap Best speed Diff Gap Laps1 93 Scott McLaughlin 1:03.829 13 148.334 132 2 Jonny Reid 1:03.918 14 148.127 0.089 0.089 143 5 Andy Knight 1:04.181 12 147.520 0.352 0.263 144 99 Kayne Scott 1:04.192 2 147.495 0.363 0.011 125 23 Andy Booth 1:04.278 7 147.298 0.449 0.086 116 96 Ant Pedersen 1:04.294 12 147.261 0.465 0.016 147 22 Andre Heimgartner 1:04.379 10 147.067 0.550 0.085 128 51 Greg Murphy 1:04.389 9 147.044 0.560 0.010 129 47 John McIntyre 1:04.401 11 147.016 0.572 0.012 1210 15 Paul Manuell 1:04.406 15 147.005 0.577 0.005 1511 12 Geoff Emery 1:04.458 13 146.886 0.629 0.052 1312 31 Daniel Gaunt 1:04.481 13 146.834 0.652 0.023 1613 10 Richard Moore 1:04.547 13 146.684 0.718 0.066 1314 247 Angus Fogg 1:04.634 11 146.486 0.805 0.087 1115 556 Steven Richards 1:04.703 5 146.330 0.874 0.069 1416 27 Craig Baird 1:04.924 9 145.832 1.095 0.221 1417 69 Eddie Bell 1:05.117 13 145.400 1.288 0.193 13

Race results: Round 4Hampton Downs


Saturday, 2 JuneRace 1, 20 laps

Pos No. Name Laps Total time Diff Best time In lap Best speed1 93 Scott McLaughlin 20 21:40.491 1:04.232 7 147.4032 23 Andy Booth 20 21:43.209 2.718 1:04.521 7 146.7433 2 Jonny Reid 20 21:44.110 3.619 1:04.549 14 146.6794 51 Greg Murphy 20 21:45.848 5.357 1:04.581 4 146.6075 47 John McIntyre 20 21:53.583 13.092 1:04.937 10 145.8036 99 Kayne Scott 20 21:55.908 15.417 1:04.847 9 146.0057 15 Paul Manuell 20 21:56.108 15.617 1:04.905 7 145.8758 22 Andre Heimgartner 20 21:56.370 15.879 1:04.934 9 145.8109 5 Andy Knight 20 22:00.120 19.629 1:04.790 11 146.13410 556 Steven Richards 20 22:00.479 19.988 1:04.678 18 146.38711 69 Eddie Bell 20 22:04.372 23.881 1:05.130 5 145.37112 12 Geoff Emery 20 22:04.918 24.427 1:04.979 18 145.70913 247 Angus Fogg 20 22:24.078 43.587 1:05.159 4 145.30614 31 Daniel Gaunt 20 22:27.383 46.892 1:04.860 20 145.976Not classified (75% = 15 Laps)15 96 Ant Pedersen 11 12:03.400 9 Laps 1:04.672 9 146.40016 10 Richard Moore 0 4.240 20 Laps --:--:--.--- 0 -17 27 Craig Baird 0 4.532 0.292 --:--:--.--- 0 -



Sunday, 3 JuneRace 2, 25 laps

Pos No. Name Laps Total time Diff Best time In lap Best speed1 93 Scott McLaughlin 25 31:53.977 1:04.368 6 147.0922 23 Andy Booth 25 31:54.661 0.684 1:04.560 25 146.6543 47 John McIntyre 25 31:55.899 1.922 1:04.936 25 145.8054 22 Andre Heimgartner 25 31:56.402 2.425 1:04.865 12 145.9655 51 Greg Murphy 25 31:57.795 3.818 1:05.309 12 144.9726 5 Andy Knight 25 31:59.082 5.105 1:05.149 24 145.3287 27 Craig Baird 25 31:59.957 5.980 1:05.287 12 145.0218 31 Daniel Gaunt 25 32:00.114 6.137 1:05.090 14 145.4609 69 Eddie Bell 25 32:01.300 7.323 1:05.669 5 144.17810 99 Kayne Scott 25 32:03.489 9.512 1:05.366 11 144.84611 12 Geoff Emery 25 32:04.036 10.059 1:05.757 12 143.98512 15 Paul Manuell 25 32:14.506 20.529 1:05.167 25 145.28813 247 Angus Fogg 25 32:18.323 24.346 1:05.396 13 144.77914 96 Ant Pedersen 24 32:00.496 1 Lap 1:05.201 11 145.21215 556 Steven Richards 24 32:04.497 4.001 1:05.641 4 144.239Not classified (75% = 19 Laps)16 2 Jonny Reid 12 15:19.531 13 Laps 1:04.793 12 146.12717 10 Richard Moore 5 6:20.997 20 Laps 1:08.334 4 138.555



Sunday, 3 JuneRace 3, 30 laps

Pos No. Name Laps Total time Diff Best time In lap Best speed1 93 Scott McLaughlin 35 41:40.604 1:04.504 16 146.7822 23 Andy Booth 35 41:41.472 0.868 1:04.518 15 146.7503 51 Greg Murphy 35 41:42.554 1.950 1:04.626 20 146.5054 2 Jonny Reid 35 41:43.741 3.137 1:04.891 23 145.9065 22 Andre Heimgartner 35 41:45.177 4.573 1:04.959 23 145.7536 96 Ant Pedersen 35 41:45.579 4.975 1:05.001 20 145.6597 5 Andy Knight 35 41:45.961 5.357 1:04.987 15 145.6918 47 John McIntyre 35 41:48.203 7.599 1:05.128 19 145.3759 15 Paul Manuell 35 41:48.232 7.628 1:05.053 11 145.54310 556 Steven Richards 35 41:48.497 7.893 1:05.101 29 145.43611 31 Daniel Gaunt 35 41:49.479 8.875 1:05.503 21 144.54312 12 Geoff Emery 35 41:51.150 10.546 1:05.518 22 144.51013 10 Richard Moore 35 41:51.533 10.929 1:05.082 10 145.47814 247 Angus Fogg 35 41:52.087 11.483 1:05.653 29 144.213Not classified (75% = 27 Laps)15 69 Eddie Bell 9 22:56.797 26 Laps 1:05.877 8 143.72216 27 Craig Baird 6 8:30.449 29 Laps 1:06.857 6 141.61617 99 Kayne Scott 1 1:10.440 34 Laps 1:08.727 1 137.762



Points - Round 4 Hampton Downs 1-3 June 2012 Car No Driver Qual Race 1 Race 2 Feature Race Round Points Overall points Place Points Points FL Points FL Points FL47 John McIntyre 30 131 162 110 433 2021 1st2 Jonny Reid 63 162 0 168 393 2019 2nd51 Greg Murphy 33 146 131 186 496 1742 3rd23 Andy Booth 46 180 180 207 613 1651 4th99 Kayne Scott 51 118 77 0 246 1498 5th96 Ant Pedersen 41 0 51 136 228 1468 6th93 Scott McLaughlin 70 210 20 210 20 240 20 790 1375 7th5 Andy Knight 57 86 118 122 383 1277 8th27 Craig Baird 0 0 106 0 106 1259 9th556 Steven Richards 0 77 46 89 212 1226 10th22 Andre Heimgartner 37 96 146 151 430 1198 11th69 Eddie Bell 0 70 86 0 156 1039 12th15 Paul Manuell 27 106 63 99 295 971 13th10 Richard Moore 0 0 0 65 65 782 14th51 Fabian Coulthard 0 0 0 0 0 757 15th12 Geoff Emery 0 63 70 72 205 639 16th66 Colin Corkery 0 0 0 0 0 293 17th31 Daniel Gaunt 0 51 96 80 227 227 18th247 Angus Fogg 0 56 56 58 170 170 19th

V8SuperTourer points after round 4

JMR Hampton Downs photo gallery



John McIntyre has selected the multi-talented, race-winning Jono Lester to be his co-driver in the V8SuperTourers’ three-round endurance race series, which runs from September to November this year.

McIntyre, based in Nelson, says the 22-year-old New Zealander has an impressive pedigree of international race successes which sits well alongside his sound knowledge of the three circuits where the endurance races will run.

“Jono Lester is the perfect partner for me in the #47 JMR Falcon; he’s a talented Kiwi on the rise,” says McIntyre. “I have watched, as a teenager, he won races, rounds and pole positions in the New Zealand Porsche GT3 Cup and then went onto be fifth fastest in 2010 Porsche Supercup world final at Monza in Italy. This year he has been chosen to drive a 6.2 L V8 Mercedes Benz SLS in the Super Taikyu endurance series in Japan. So for me he clearly has the raw speed we require and now he is getting high level experience in Japan to compliment his speed; it’s an easy choice.”

Lester says he is excited by McIntyre’s invitation to join him as the team’s enduro driver.

“John runs, in my opinion, the best operation in the championship, on and off the track, and he is totally professional about his motor racing. So to partner John, whom I rate very highly, is such a wonderful opportunity for me,” says Lester, who lives in central Auckland and hails from Manawatu.

Lester says the endurance racing experience he’s presently gaining in Japan is proving invaluable.

“The six-round Super Taikyu endurance series features three to four hour long races with a field of 45 cars of all speeds and marques, and the key to winning comes just as much down to traffic handling as raw speed,” explains Lester. “All of the FIA GT3-spec cars in the class I contest feature at least one former Super GT 300 and 500 championship winner in their driver line-up, so there are some really competitive benchmarks here.”

McIntyre highlights Lester’s fitness as another essential element for the JMR V8SuperTourer endurance drive.

“We anticipate the two-driver endurance races will be more like long sprint races, due to the tyres and the balance of the cars,” says McIntyre. “So Jono’s incredibly high level of fitness adds to his credibility, as does the fact he knows all three circuits – Taupo, Pukekohe and Ruapuna – extremely well.”

Kiwi international Jono Lester joins McIntyre for V8SuperTourer enduros


Where we’ve been seen:Nelson Mail - 2 June

NZ Herald - 6 June

Nelson Mail - 4 JuneWaikato Times - 7 June

Otago Daily Times - 4 JuneTaupo Times - 8 June


Where we’ve been seen - web links

Yahoo! Sport - 3 June

TV3 - 1 JuneStuff.co.nz - 2 June


Next round:We now turn our attention to the first of three endurance rounds, starting at Taupo’s Motorsport Park 1-2 September.

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:* 1-2 September - Taupo Motorsport Park, TaupoRound 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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