Australian driver Jason Bargwanna claimed the first clean sweep in a round for the NZV8 Touring Cars TLX Championship today at Timaru International Motor Raceway.
In a nail biting first race yesterday Bargwanna had Cambridge driver Nick Ross on his heels all the way to the finish line providing exciting entertainment for the crowd of spectators with Ross coming in just 0.636 of a second behind followed by Turua driver A J Lauder in the second Toyota.
This morning it looked as though Ross was going to be the one to claim the victory with the roles reversed and Bargwanna’s Toyota nipping at the heels of the Holden.
But after several laps where a raging battle between the two resulted in mirrors being knocked and panel damage on both cars Bargwanna finally managed to get the better of Ross and claim his second win with a near identical margin of just 0.656 of a second and again followed by Lauder.
In the final race Ross got the jump on Bargwanna to take the lead and was going strong until on lap two he lost a cylinder and was unable to compete with the Toyota driver.
Bargwanna took the race with a clear margin ahead of Ross who was again followed by Lauder.
“Obviously to be able to get the first clean sweep in a TLX car is pretty exciting for us, Nick Ross and the Concept guys pushed us hard all weekend. We had to work hard for pole and to get a 1:02.8 (lap time) I’m really excited about.” said jason Bargwanna.
“Race one was a good hard race on old tyres but race two we knew was the real challenge for us so to be able to have that battle with Nick and get through to win the race and then race three was a matter of getting our head down and getting the gap and getting on with it.” he said.
In the 20 lap final race where there was a compulsory pitstop for the TLX cars and a blistering performance from his crew saw Ross able to stay ahead of Lauder giving him much valued points to maintain his championship lead.
“Yeah little bit gutted we got a really good start managed to get ‘Bargs’ on the start line and started to pull a gap and then on lap two we lost a cylinder not sure why yet – it felt like it came back a little bit but we were still way down on power, we were probably lucky the race was only 20 laps and not 25 .” said Ross.
“Once again the boys did an awesome pitstop and got us back out in front of A J – it would have been nice to have won a race but we will take three second places and are still leading the championship but need to start winning some races to keep that gap.” he said.
In the NZV8 Touring Car TLX Championship Ross holds a now slightly slimmer lead over Bargwanna with 614 to 584 and A J Lauder third with 487.
“For us it’s all about getting clean sweeps and the championship will take care of itself.” said Bargwanna.
In the NZV8 Touring Cars TL Championship James McLaughlin overcame a penalty held over from last weekend at Teretonga Park to claim the round win.
Clearly quick around the Timaru circuit he missed out on pole position when in the shootout he nearly lost the car in the final turn which lost him a lot of time but still came across the line with a time good enough for third.
Unfortunately for him no matter where he qualified he was to start at the rear of the field for his part in the four car high speed incident at Teretonga.
In a highly impressive show of skill and speed McLaughlin was able to move up through the pack in race one and cross the line in third place behind Timaru’s own John Hepburn and Turua’s Brad Lauder.
In race two he was out on his own for much of the race after pulling a gap on Brad Lauder finishing just over four seconds ahead of him followed by Invercargill’s Grant Molloy.
Race three was similar where again McLaughlin pulled a large gap finishing just over four seconds ahead of Lauder and with the faster TLX cars taking a compulsory pitstop he was able to finish an impressive fourth overall in the mixed class race.
“We are really happy the crew did it all I just hop in and drive it – what it comes down to is how they set the car up and I couldn’t ask for a better group of mates and family it’s pretty cool.” said McLaughlin.
In the NZV8 Touring Cars TL Championship McLaughlin leads Ian Booth 487 points to 461 with Grant Molloy very close behind on 458.
The NZV8 Touring Cars leave the South Island after back to back rounds at Invercargill and Timaru and now head north where Round Four will be held at Manfeild Park in Feilding over the weekend of 8-9th February.
NZV8 Touring Cars extends a thank you to Clark Machine Hire for their help and support of the series for Round Three at Timaru International Motor Raceway.
Clarke Machine Hire
Images supplied by NZV8TC for editorial publication
Results – Timaru International Motor Raceway
Race One
NZV8 Touring Cars TLX Championship
1st Jason Bargwanna Australia Toyota Camry
2nd Nick Ross Cambridge Holden Commodore
3rd A J Lauder Turua Toyota Camry
4th Shaun Varney Auckland Ford Falcon
5th Lance Hughes Hamilton Holden Commodore
NZV8 Touring Cars TL Championship
1st John Hepburn Timaru Ford Falcon
2nd Brad Lauder Turua Ford Falcon
3rd James McLaughlin Lower hutt Holden Commodore
4th Bronson Porter Hamilton Holden Commodore
5th Grant Molloy Invercargill Ford Falcon
6th Liam MacDonald Invercargill Ford Falcon
7th Brock Cooley Wellington Ford Falcon
8th Ian Booth Hamilton Holden Commodore
9th Mathew Booth Hamilton Holden Commodore
10th Nathan Pilcher Winton Holden Commodore
Race Two
NZV8 Touring Cars TLX Championship
1st Jason Bargwanna Australia Toyota Camry
2nd Nick Ross Cambridge Holden Commodore
3rd A J Lauder Turua Toyota Camry
4th Lance Hughes Hamilton Holden Commodore
5th Shaun Varney Auckland Ford Falcon
NZV8 Touring Cars TL Championship
1st James McLaughlin Lower Hutt Holden Commodore
2nd Brad Lauder Turua Ford Falcon
3rd Grant Molloy Invercargill Ford Falcon
4th John Hepburn Timaru Ford Falcon
5th Barry Holden Hamilton Ford Falcon
6th Matthew Booth Hamilton Holden Commodore
7th Ian Booth Hamilton Holden Commodore
8th Brock Cooley Wellington Ford Falcon
9th Liam MacDonald Invercargill Ford Falcon
10th Nathan Pilcher Winton Holden Commodore
DNF Bronson Porter Hamilton Holden Commodore
Race Three
NZV8 Touring Cars TLX Championship (25 laps with compulsory pitstop for TLX class)
1st Jason Bargwanna Australia TLX Toyota Camry
2nd Nick Ross Cambridge TLX Holden Commodore
3rd A J Lauder Turua TLX Toyota Camry
4th James McLaughlin Lower Hutt TL Holden Commodore
5th Brad Lauder Turua TL Ford Falcon
6th John Hepburn Timaru TL Ford Falcon
7th Shaun Varney Auckland TLX Ford Falcon
8th Bronson Porter Hamiton TL Holden Commodore
9th Ian Booth Hamilton TL Holden Commodore
10th Brock Cooley Wellington TL Ford Falcon
11th Matthew Booth Hamiton TL Holden Commodore
12th Liam MacDonald Invercargill TL Ford Falcon
13th Grant Molloy Invercargill TL Ford Falcon
14th Lance hughes Hamilton TLX Holden Commodore
15th Nathan Pilcher Winton TL Holden Commodore
DNS Barry Holden Hamilton TL Ford Falcon
NZV8 Touring Cars Calendar
Rd 1 Pukekohe Park Raceway 16-17 November 2013 (completed)
Rd 2 Teretonga Park, Invercargill 11-12 January 2014 (completed)
Rd 3 Timaru International Motor Raceway 18-19 January 2014 (completed)
Rd 4 Manfeild, Feilding (NZ Grand Prix) 08-09 February 2014
Rd 5 Taupo Motorsport Park 08-09 March 2014
Rd 6 Pukekohe Park (V8 Supercars) 25-27 April 2014 (ANZAC Weekend)
