JMR Green Light #15

31 January 2014 - Issue No,15

www.jmr.co.nz

GREEN-LIGHT #15

If you are reading our team news for the first time this year you will see there has been a major change. I am taking the team in a new direction and that is to give an opportunity to young drivers to learn their Touring Car skills in one of the toughest domestic series world-wide: V8SuperTourers. This year’s driver is 22 year-old Mark Gibson, originally from Taupo and now living in Auckland. Mark was an outstanding candidate for the drive and our faith in him has already been repaid with his debut performance last weekend. I will be in action at every round doing some of the practice sessions and then joining as the co-driver for the three endurance events.

South Island Tour

After packing our 2 x 20ft containers we set of on our trip from Taupo to Cromwell. We arrived in Nelson on Sunday night and would start our promotional tour at Talley’s Port Nelson on Monday evening. At each event we had the race car on display for kids big and small to try, radio controlled cars to race and plenty of posters to sign for sponsors and fans. We drove Nelson-Kaikora-Christchurch-Ashburton-Timaru-Cromwell-Queenstown all in two days. Along the way we met plenty of great supporters and signed over 1,000 posters!


Welcome to the first Green Light e-magazine for 2014.

Friday

Competing at Highlands for the first time as a team posed a few issues; one of these was sharing a garage with one of our competitors M3 Racing and their new driver Morgan Haber. In some ways it was actually nice to break down the barriers and chat to the opposition. As it turned out we were compet-ing against them all weekend and we came out on top! On Friday we only had one practice session for Mark to get a feel for the track and the car. We were both able to drive the circuit in the JMR XR6 promo car in the morning, which was quite helpful for Mark but it all changes when you are in the race car. In my new role I am engineering the car and talking to Mark on the radio. We set a plan for him to just work his way into the track and give feedback on the car. On the first lap there was a red flag and we lost 7 minutes of the 40 minute session. Mark completed 8 timed laps and came in seventh fastest of the 12 cars. I then hopped in the car and drove it till the end of the session. But that’s not the whole story. On my out lap I rushed the third turn and spun into the gravel. The car came out but I had to pit to reattach the rear bumper and clear out the stones. Not my best effort. However I managed three timed laps that provided valuable data for Mark going into Saturday.

Saturday

In the morning practice Mark was again improving all session and we kept him on used tyres. The car balance was good and we had plenty of turn. As the track slowly gripped up the more experienced drivers pulled away from us, but that was to be expected. We entered the two 15 minute qualifying sessions with a well-balanced car and eight new Hankook tyres. In top level racing, qualifying is everything. The more experience you have the more you will get out of yourself and the new tyres. The human performance element in qualifying is quite interesting because drivers never repeat qualifying times in races, because there are points and titles on the line. In both sessions Mark pushed as hard as he could and finished 11th in each. In the second session he was just 0.2sec from being eighth and the session was cut short when he had two laps to go. I knew he would be disappointed but I thought he did a solid job and his feedback was good enough for us to keep improving the car.


Welcome continued...

Photographer Geoff Ridder

2013

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2014


Pre-season tour photo gallery


Welcome continued...In the first 12 lap race we had a slow first lap and lost the lead bunch. However Mark didn’t panic and worked on catching the cars in front. One of the reasons I chose Mark for the drive was his ability to drive in traffic and make good decisions. Lap two saw one of the most experienced drivers hit the wall hard on the front straight. I saw the incident unfold and called it to Mark on the radio. He managed to miss all of the debris strewn across the front straight. Once the race went Green we were in ninth place and over the rest of the race Mark made up time and position to finish a very credible sixth. An excellent result first time up.

Sunday

With solid points in the bank, Sunday was about doing nothing silly and building on the points. It was cold and raining. This was the first ever day of racing in the wet at Highlands. The 10,000 plus crowd from Saturday understandably wasn’t repeated on Sunday, but there were still 3-4,000 hardy fans set in for the day. I have to admit that calling the race on the radio in wet conditions is much harder than dry; I’d say 10 beats/minute more! But I had nothing to worry about. Mark started ninth and drove a smart and consistent race to finish seventh in some very tricky conditions. Most importantly for me; our debrief after that race led to a great change to the car for the final 20 lap race. We would start fifth on the grid and again look to consolidate our point’s position. Mark immediately liked the new settings on the car and was right in the mix with the front six cars. He was smart enough to let quicker cars through and even smarter to pass them again when they made a mistake! At one point Mark was running second behind Mur-phy and improving his times with every lap. Going back to fourth, Mark then started to catch up to the car in third and took his time to work out where a possible pass would work. With three laps to go Mark made a very decisive move going into the carousel and just held a very sideways moment that I luckily couldn’t see. Over the last two laps he knew to just bring it home and complete his first podium in V8 SuperTourers. In doing that he recorded the fifth fastest race time, just 0.4 off the second placed driver.


Welcome continued...Great start

To see Mark enjoying the spoils of a podium was just fantastic. It wouldn’t have been possible without the team providing an excellent, fast and reliable car all weekend. Mark is fifth in the points and has learned a great amount in the first round. From here on in the season will get tougher. More cars (15) will be at Manfeild and some drivers will be trying to make up for lost points at round one. We will continue to stick with a very proven plan of attack for all of the sessions. Manfeild is just a week away, only just enough time for the team to have the car turned around and ready. We look forward to returning to Manfeild again after a season off. JMR has had a great history at the circuit and most importantly Mark has driven his NZV8 here and our V8 SuperTourer in a hot-lap day.

Until then, enjoy the coverage this weekend on TV3, SUNDAY 2.30pm-5.30pm


Mark Gibson: Round 1 Highlands

After a successful first test in the JMR V8 SuperTourer I was looking forward to the first round down in Cromwell. I headed down with the team for the South Island road tour, which gave me a good chance to meet and mingle with many of JMR’s fantastic sponsors. On top of that I had plenty of one on one time with John to discuss our plan for weekend and of course ask the occasional Bathurst question. My first laps around the Highlands track were somewhat slower than I had hoped as we were allowed to take the promo car out for some look laps but unfortunately due to speed restrictions we couldn’t test out the new XR6 properly. Going into practice one I was told by John to fully focus on getting to know the track and not to worry about the time sheets. I felt I achieved this and was also pleased to be in P7 when I hopped out of the car (not that I looked). John then went out to put in a time so that we could get a reference lap for me to work towards.

Practice two was a similar approach except I pushed on a bit more and started testing my braking points a little further, this session I was ninth and still inside the top-10. The car was feeling good and I looked forward to qualifying.

Qualifying is the hardest part of the V8 SuperTourer category for me because of my limited miles on green (new) tyres. The rest of the field is into their third season in these cars and has plenty of experi-ence in qualifying. This is something John was constantly reminding me as I was disappointed in myself with 11th in both sessions. However, we knew that if we kept it clean in the races we would move forward.


Mark Gibson: Round 1 continued...This was exactly the case as I avoided all of the carnage in race one to finish sixth.

The Sunday provided extremely wet weather which I was quietly excited about as my pace was a little bit off in the dry and I generally enjoy the wet weather. Race two I started at the rear of the grid and moved up into seventh, another solid result. This meant that because of my consistent results I would start the final race in fifth. By this time my nerves were finally starting to kick in, I was on the grid next to four of the championship contenders from last season. I knew that if I stayed in the top-5 it would be a massive achievement for myself.

The race ran perfectly, I got a great start and moved up into fourth. I held that position until the final two laps where I made a pass for third. I then brought the car home for my first podium result in the category in my first full championship round. I remember getting out of the car and going to shake John’s hands and he just grabbed me and said “you bloody beauty”, this was such a great feeling and a true testament to John and the team for all of their hard work in getting me and the car on the podium.


Points - Round 1 Fuchs 250 Highlands 25-26 January 2014.Pos Car No Driver Total 1 1 Greg Murphy 2912 22 Andre Heimgartner 2283 10 Richard Moore 2134 96 Ant Pedersen 1925 47 Mark Gibson 1726 15 Morgan Haber 15810 26 Simon McLennan 1458 8 Tim Edgell 1439 4 Simon Evans 13110 32 Mitch Cunningham 12111 69 Eddie Bell 812 3 Angus Fogg 4

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As seen in the:

NZ Herald - Driven 18 January 23January

Taupo Times: 17 January


2014 BNT V8 SuperTourers calendarSPRINT ROUNDS (Sprint portion of Championship)ROUND ONE: January 25/26 Highlands Park, Cromwell, South IslandROUND TWO: February 8/9 Manfeild, Palmerston NorthROUND THREE: March 22/23 Pukekohe, AucklandROUND FOUR: April 25-27 with V8 Supercars, Pukekohe, Auckland

ENDURANCE ROUNDS (Endurance portion of Championship)ROUND FIVE: September 6/7 Father’s Day 400 TaupoROUND SIX: November 1/2 South IslandROUND SEVEN: November 28/29/30 Pukekohe 500, Auckland


Notepad:

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Next round:

8-9 February 2014 - The Sound 250

Manfeild, Feilding

Tickets from www.dashtickets.co.nz


JMR would like to thank our sponsors:

See round one coverage:TV3 Sunday 2 February

from 2:30pm

JMR Green Light #15

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