Jason Bargwanna’s long motor-racing career has at last earned him a national championship to add to his long list of other successes.
“Finally! After 26 years of trying!” the 40-year-old Australian said after winning the NZV8s TLX championship at Pukekohe today.
“It’s just a pity my wife Deb and my kids Jake and Ben can’t be here to share it, but this race was broadcast live on TV in Australia so they would have been watching that.”
Although he had won the Bathurst 1000km classic and other V8 Supercar races, he had never won a national championship and he said before the meeting that he really wanted to fill that gap in his trophy cabinet. He had three times been second in championships.
It all came down to today’s second race for the Fujitsu Heat Pumps-supported NZV8s, the final in the 2013 season. Bargwanna needed only to finish it but that could never be taken for granted, especially as he would be running into heavy traffic towards the end of the 12-lap race as he lapped some of the 35 TL-category (original-specification) cars.
The Aussie led in his new-generation (TLX) Holden Commodore but Cambridge driver Nick Ross, in a similar car, caught up and started looking for ways to get past. Towards the end of the final lap they ran into what looked like rush-hour traffic.
“I didn’t know whether I should go left or right,” Bargwanna said. “I backed out of it and Nick got me. It’s been good clean racing.”
Ross took the victory but second place was more than enough to wrap up the title for Bargwanna. His only remaining title challenger, Hamilton driver Martin Short, was a close third in his Toyota Camry after getting a poor start.
Bargwanna had hoped to clinch the title with a victory in today’s first race, but he started behind Short on the partly reversed grid and the Kiwi was able to control the race from the front.
“We got a good restart after the safety-car period and I managed to pull a gap,” Short said. I kept pushing hard right to the end.”
Bargwanna meanwhile had to concern himself with resisting Ross, who was right on his tail and looking faster. On the final lap Ross started to make a move at turn five but pulled out of it.
“I didn’t want to do a Winterbottom,” Ross said, referring to the collision between V8 Supercar stars Mark Winterbottom and Jamie Whincup at the same corner yesterday. He and Short ended up second equal in the championship.
The NZV8s Gold Star title for the TL cars was won yesterday by 18-year-old rookie AJ Lauder from Turua in the Coromandel. Today his brother Brad, just 16, finished second in the championship after two solid drives in the team’s second Ford Falcon.
Their team is managed by their grandfather Frank Radisich, one of New Zealand’s leading drivers in his time, and the brothers also get valuable advice from Frank’s son Paul, who twice won the World Cup for touring cars.
In the TL class the round was won by John McIntyre with two wins and a second in his Falcon. The Nelson driver was making a one-off return to the category where he had won three championships.
Pukekohe driver Kevin Williams won the TL category in today’s first race, which started from a partially reversed grid, in his Ford. Aucklander Andrew Anderson was second in the final race, also driving a Commodore.
Final points – TLX: Bargwanna 1016, Ross and Short 935, Haydn Mackenzie (Auckland, Ford) 320, Brent Collins (Timaru, Toyota) 294. TL: AJ lauder 906, Brad Lauder 748, Shaun Varney (Auckland, Ford) 639, Struan Robertson (Paraparaumu, Ford) 613. Williams 403.
