2005/2006 NZ Touring Car Series

[BAZzzzz c]

I Agree HQ. However, there were a fair number of problems to do with the reliability of the two cars and some unwanted 'input' on the track by other drivers, making our performance less than satisfactory '' on paper " but more, much much more satisfactory with regard to the racing and finishes that we had. If anybody is interested, TKR 's press release gives all the grim details of the events but I have absolutely no idea how I could get that 'release' onto here.
Chapelli seems to think that TKR fans are dissapointed with the week-end. Cant speak for the many many others that were dowen there in their full TKR gear, but I for one was chuffed to see those two cars racing and I was not dissapointed in any way, except maybe with certain issues with the mechanicals of the cars. Early days with two cars of unknown quality at the moment and its a tribute to the Crew, headed by the brilliant Martin Collins, who will be overseeing every N Zed round as well as every Ozz Round of the Superdoopercars, that amongst many other things, a complete engine change was required to one car, meaning a 5 a.m. FINISH to the work involved. They must ALL have been knackered come saturdays race day. High drama, 'new 'cars, 'new' Drivers,and stiff competition, as well as some good folks chortlings that they were 'expected' to be in the top ten from the word go.! Your faith is touching chapelli and I am sorry that you are so dissapointed (it shows) but its a long Series and we will iron out all that trivial stuff that prevented us from winning this particular round. You see if we dont.......

On another note. The news that MIKE WEEKS was in attendance at this meeting was indeed welcomed by this race fan with great joy and emotion. I even trapsed the Porsche areas and scanned the 'posh' stands (but only from the outside,) for a chance to maybe have a word but I didnt see him. However, Great news that he is up and about. Its a looooong road to getting well and I wish with all my heart that he is 100% again before too long. Those fumes and the standard of racing at the week-end MUST go a long way to seeing him fully participating. It was a great boost for me for the week-end to know that he was about.

[HQRacer]

Bazz - thats excellent news on Mike.

[BAZzzzz c]

On another note, I am a memeber of the NZGP Assoc. In past years, as part of the membership perks, we could gain entry to the members stand, although I rarely did that. We got one free entry and a mere 10 bucks for an extra ticket. .
With the new Motorsport Company thing going on this year, it seems that this little 'thanks' (for being a paid member) from the NZGPA has been withdrawn and entry to any level was between $100. and $145.00 depending on where you went. Very nice for the Corporates I guess but us mere peasants, that try our darndest to put in as much dosh as we can reasonably afford, might find it a bit TOO rich for the week-end. We did however get free entry to all of the other grandstands that everybody else attending had free entry to.!! Oh, I also got 5 bucks off the gate entry fee. Although I tried my darndest to pay the lady the full amount of 30 bucks, there was no scope to pay the full amount and I had to settle for an early ticket fee of $25.00 plus another $5.00 off for being a Member (of the NZGP A silly, not a 'being a member' nudge nudge....) Not overly tragic I suppose and it didnt effect me personally but it IS a loss to GPA members of a very good concession. Anybody else notice it?

[BAZzzzz c]

Yes, thanks HQ, One of the best stories of the week-end.

[Evomike]

Originally Posted by BAZzzzz c

On another note, I am a memeber of the NZGP Assoc. In past years, as part of the membership perks, we could gain entry to the members stand, although I rarely did that. We got one free entry and a mere 10 bucks for an extra ticket. .
With the new Motorsport Company thing going on this year, it seems that this little 'thanks' (for being a paid member) from the NZGPA has been withdrawn and entry to any level was between $100. and $145.00 depending on where you went. Very nice for the Corporates I guess but us mere peasants, that try our darndest to put in as much dosh as we can reasonably afford, might find it a bit TOO rich for the week-end. We did however get free entry to all of the other grandstands that everybody else attending had free entry to.!! Oh, I also got 5 bucks off the gate entry fee. Although I tried my darndest to pay the lady the full amount of 30 bucks, there was no scope to pay the full amount and I had to settle for an early ticket fee of $25.00 plus another $5.00 off for being a Member (of the NZGP A silly, not a 'being a member' nudge nudge....) Not overly tragic I suppose and it didnt effect me personally but it IS a loss to GPA members of a very good concession. Anybody else notice it?

Baz just to make your weekend more miserable, the $5 dicount off the tickets applied to anyone who rocked up to the NZGP office in Ellerslie.

[BAZzzzz c]

Gee Fanks EVO, that's REALLY made my day......LOL.

[911]

Originally Posted by Chappelli

To clarify, they purchased atleast one car that was capable of winning the championship and another one which was driven by Mike Pero who probably could have been driving Alonoso's Renault and still been trailing the field.

Chappelli, perhaps you would like to speak to the technical officers who inspected the ex Mike Pero Motorsport cars before the start of the season while doing two rounds of the country inspecting everyone’s cars.
Rumour has it that the ‘one car capable of winning last years championship’ was allegedly well outside the rulebook.
I’m sure TKR have spent considerable time and effort rectifying these errors, of which takes away a lot of time and recourses from developing these cars and drivers to get up to speed.
Still, I agree with you chappy.
I can't see how TKR would not be disappointed with the weekend to some degree.
Everyone here is talking like TKR are a new team with no experience or expertise.
Are we saying Martin Collins knows nothing or very little about these cars?
I can feel some horse manure coming my way!!!

[911]

Originally Posted by Goat Boy

Maybe Wade was quite a good driver after all...

Maybe???
You don't lead achampionship for most of the year and end up in the top three for the season without being good driver GB.

[Goat Boy]

That's very interesting about the technical officers. Word was that the Henshaw car and one or two others were within the letter of the law but outside the "spirit" of the rules as they stood last season. Until the rules were "clarified" that is, at which point they would have been outside of them!

As I've said in earlier posts, Wade did not win any more races after that...

[Goat Boy]

Originally Posted by 911

Maybe???
You don't lead achampionship for most of the year and end up in the top three for the season without being good driver GB.

There you go 911, missing my irony again.

Of course he was a good driver, but pity he didn't get a drive this year. There were a few empty spaces at Pukekohe, anyone know who the "spare" franchises are?

[911]

Originally Posted by Goat Boy

Word was that the Henshaw car and one or two others were within the letter of the law but outside the "spirit" of the rules as they stood last season. Until the rules were "clarified" that is, at which point they would have been outside of them!...

Looks like you've worded it better GB.
That's how I should have put it, but after reading some of Evo's posts of constant TKR spin I over hyped my own post.
Sorry...

[Goat Boy]

Hey, no problemo!

[911]

BTW...nobody has mentioned the idiot move Booth made on Mark Pedersen on the last lap of the last race on Sunday.
How does he get away with that s**t???

[Goat Boy]

Maybe you are the only one who thought it was worth mentioning...

[911]

I'm sure Mork had plenty to mention about it at the hearing GB.
Dean Perkins surely would have had something to say about it too...

[Goat Boy]

What hearing is this? What actually happened was this:

3 cars arrive at a corner in a dead heat (confirmed on TV footage) and nobody backs out - so why do you blame the guy who had the inside line?

Mork put in an enquiry form (which is different to a protest form), they got everyone to watch the video and all agreed it was one of those unfortunate racing incidents. End of story. Maybe you need to get the chip off your shoulder, 924

[Tracie]

The exercise of getting the three drivers in to view the video was a good idea - I understand that there is one person who will have this responsibility for the whole season - he could be a busy little boy

have seen it myself and really three abreast around that corner simply does not work - Booths move up the inside prior to the corner was perfectly legal - yes he did have some of the right wheels off the track but that was were the track widened at pit exit - when the three cars were entering the corner all three were inside the track white lines - yes Goat Boy I agree it was just one of those things that can happen - no driver can have blame apportioned so it becomes a racing incident

[Tracy]

Hi All

Have been reading this new thread with interest, and sounds like the controversy has started really early this season.

As for a tkr fan being disappointed in the teams performance at Puke, well, no.

OK, maybe a bit disappointed about the mechanical failures, but everyone is when things happen like that, but I am not disappointed in the first round results - first time for both drivers in the NZV8's - to finish in that field at all seems to be an achievement (after all it looks like most of the front runners even had one race where things didn't go to plan in one way or another).

I am sure that better results will come as the season goes on, and the guys have some more time in the cars!

[Goat Boy]

Glad you found us Tracy, and welcome to you, new Tracie. I'm not confused??

Nice to hear that someone else realises that when you have a lot of cars on one small track, all circulating within a few tenths of each other, paint can be swapped at times. Nobody goes out with the intention of taking someone else out, let's leave that to the stock cars and the V8 Supercars

[BAZzzzz c]

Oh, yes, two Traceeeeees. now for a moment there even I was confessed er confused. Likewise to goatboy, welcome to the Forum Tracie . Hope you stick around.
and Hi Tracy, thananks for the race results etc etc. As always, "Thats Gold. "

[v8srule]

I agree, what a stupid decision on the part of the officials to have a 1 lap sprint - the carnage is guaranteed and 17 laps of hard yakka goes down the tubes as idiots like Boothy get a rush of testosterone and take everyone else out.

[v8srule]

I think to say all agreed is far from correct GB

[Muzzy]

Originally Posted by v8srule

I agree, what a stupid decision on the part of the officials to have a 1 lap sprint - the carnage is guaranteed and 17 laps of hard yakka goes down the tubes as idiots like Boothy get a rush of testosterone and take everyone else out.

*** BIAS ALERT - Booth is my favourite driver ***

Idiots like Boothy? There are certainly a few "idiots" out on the track, but I cannot see how you can call Booth one of them. Yes, he can be very aggressive, but the guy has the best finishing record of anyone in the competition. That's because he knows when to go hard and when to back off (maybe a number of years back that was not quite the case), and drivers who make stupid moves do not finish every single race each season.

With regards 3-wide, I was standing fairly close and it all looked OK (and a bit thrilling) to me. Drivers have gone through there 3-wide in the past and pulled it off (notably Booth) so in a last-lap close call like that why not make the move if you can? Just a racing incident, IMHO.

Prediction: we will see a lot more of this sort of stuff this season, making for really exciting watching. The power advantage of the Fords means the top Holden drivers will be forced to make hard plays to pull in positions when they can. Expect biffo between Booth, Scott and .... oh, the rest of the Holdens will be too far back. ;-)

[911]

Originally Posted by v8srule

I agree, what a stupid decision on the part of the officials to have a 1 lap sprint - the carnage is guaranteed and 17 laps of hard yakka goes down the tubes as idiots like Boothy get a rush of testosterone and take everyone else out.

You’re damn right v8.
If the carnage was so bad on the restart that the race had to be red flagged, (of which there was huge potential for this to happen in what effectively turned out to be a one lap sprint) the brilliant officials would have had to take the result from the previous lap anyway.
In the end all it did was ruin all the hard work put in by some competitors and cause damage to several cars.
Those of you who thought it was ok obviously don’t have to pay the bills.
Can somebody answer this question for me please…Since when has it been ok for a car to leave the track and go out onto the grass to pass another competitor???.

[Goat Boy]

Spot on Muzzy, couldn't have said it better myself. Booth is one of the best drivers out there, and just because he can be aggressive doesn't mean he is a Julia and drives outside his limits.

You see that sort of aggression from Greg Murphy, Mark Skaife, Marcos Ambrose, Russell Ingall (I could go on) all the time - are they all idiots too? The passive race driver is the one who finishes at the back of the field.