V8 Supercar driver Jason Bargwanna has a big gap in his trophy cabinet, a gap he plans to fill when the NZV8s championship concludes at Pukekohe this weekend.
“I’m still yet to win a national championship,” said the ebullient Aussie, who leads young Kiwi Martin Short by 61 points going into the final three races at the Supercar meeting, where almost 30 NZV8s will be competing.
“I’ve won Bathurst and other V8 Supercar races. I’ve been second in the Australian Formula Ford championship, the Australian drivers championship and NZV8s but in 20-odd years of motor racing I haven’t won a national championship.
“Winning the NZV8s championship would be an exciting thing to do.”
Solid finishes in the three races would clinch the title for Bargwanna and his new-generation Holden Commodore, run by the Christchurch-based team owned by long-time driver Inky Tulloch.
But throughout the season the car has suffered from a mysterious electrical gremlin, which every now and again causes the engine to lose power or even stop. In the last race, at Taupo, the car coasted across the finish line with a dead engine.
The Commodore has performed reliably in recent tests but Bargwanna still has worries.
“What makes me nervous, knowing the dramas we’ve had, we could win races one and two but if we have a drama in race three we could lose the championship,” he said.
Short, 22, has battled Bargwanna right through the series but lost ground when his Toyota Camry failed to finish one of the Taupo races.
“We’re only 61 points behind so if we hadn’t had the DNF [did not finish] we’d be leading the championship,” the Hamilton driver said. “It’s definitely not over till the chequered flag of the last race. Anything can happen.”
Both say qualifying on Friday will be a real challenge, with so many cars on the track at once.
“We only get one 20-minute practice session before qualifying,” Short said. “I think it’s going to be whoever can learn the track the best and who gets to grips with it the quickest will be the fastest.
“With close to 30 cars on the track it’s going to be hard to get a clear lap in qualifying so that could be make or break.”
Learning the circuit will be a serious business, as the $6.6 million revamp for the V8 Supercars has given the track two new corners and other significant changes.
Bargwanna and Short cannot expect to have things all their own way in the TLX class for the fast new-generation cars. Cambridge driver Nick Ross has been in hot form lately with his Commodore, winning the Taupo round, and challenges can also be expected from Timaru’s Brent Collins in the second Camry and Aucklander Haydn Mackenzie in his Ford Falcon.
The TL class for the original-specification cars has attracted a huge entry from drivers keen to race at the Supercar meeting. John McIntyre from Nelson is making a one-off return to the championship he won three times, driving a Falcon, while the experienced Andrew Anderson (Auckland) and Kevin Williams (Pukekohe) field a Commodore and Falcon respectively.
But the TL Gold Star title race is being led by two teenage brothers from the Coromandel township of Turua, AJ and Brad Lauder. Both V8 rookies, they are part of an influx of young drivers into this top-level championship, which has traditionally been the preserve of older drivers.
AJ Lauder, 18, leads Brad, just 16, by 173 points and should be able to cruise to a remarkable championship victory. Shaun Varney (Auckland) is third, followed by Struan Robertson (Paraparaumu) and Liam McDonald (Invercargill). These five all drive Falcons.
The NZV8s have one race on Saturday and two on Sunday.
