V8 Supercar driver loves the wet in Invercargill

Media release from MotorSport New Zealand

Sunday 15 January

V8 Supercar driver loves the wet in Invercargill

Australian Jason Bargwanna enjoyed the atrocious conditions at Invercargill as he won the Teretonga round of the BNT New Zealand V8s Championship.

Rain, hail, thunder, rain and fiercely cold winds buffeted the southern circuit, making the track surface treacherous and hard to read.

But with all his V8 Supercar experience – including a win at Bathurst – Bargwanna was able to keep his Ford Falcon on the track and up the front, posting a win and two seconds to outscore series leader Angus Fogg by three points.

“I’ve raced in horrendous conditions in V8 Supercars,” he said. “When I won Bathurst it was a bit like this.

“I really enjoy racing in these conditions.”

Bargwanna’s overall victory was especially meritorious as his engine was running rough and his main rivals were clearly faster down the long front straight.

Aucklander Fogg won the other two races in his Ford but came fifth in race one after starting from the back of the grid because he had spun on his top-10 shootout hot lap.

The meeting saw the emergence of a new young Kiwi star as Hamilton’s Martin Short, just 20, came very close to winning the round in his Ford. After second places in the first two races Short had a good lead in the final -- till he made a mistake at the tricky Elbow corner.

“I locked up and went off on the wet grass, and it took forever to get back on the track,” the former Formula Ford champion said. “But we’ve definitely been getting quicker and quicker, and we had a new engine for this meeting.”

Fogg remained 53 points ahead of Bargwanna with Auckland Ford driver Tim Edgell third and Short now jumping up to a close fourth.

Round one of the Toyota Racing Series was severely affected by the weather as the slippery track and an excess of ambition led many of the young guns to skid off the track, causing continual safety-car periods and stoppages.

Local driver Damon Leitch kept his head in the trying conditions and three finishes near the front saw him win the round ahead of 15 overseas drivers.

“At the end of race three it was pretty dangerous, it was too wet for racing,” he said. “I was going in a straight line and I just aquaplaned off.”

Leitch and Dutch driver Hannes van Asseldonk both crashed out of the final race but benefitted from the rule that after a red flag finishes a race, results are taken from the end of the previous lap. That gave the Dutchman his second victory, after English driver Josh Hill took the opening race.

The next round of the championships is at Timaru this coming weekend.

For further information please call Bernard Carpinter, 0274-528-744.

Attached photographs are free to use and should be credited to SportProMedia.

MOTOR RACING

New Zealand motor racing championships, round three, Teretonga (Invercargill)

BNT NZ V8s – Race one: Jason Bargwanna (Australia) Ford 1; Martin Short (Hamilton) Ford 2; Nick Ross (Cambridge) Holden 3; Simon Richards (Hamilton) Ford 4; Angus Fogg (Auckland) Ford 5. Race two (reverse grid): Fogg 1; Short 2; Bargwanna 3; Ross 4; Dwayne Carter (Auckland) Ford 5. Race three: Fogg 1; Bargwanna 2; Short 3; Ross 4; Edgell 5. Championship points: Fogg 617, Bargwanna 564, Edgell 469, Short 450, Ross 421.

Toyota Racing Series – Race one: Josh Hill (England) 1; Damon Leitch (Invercargill) 2; Jono Lester (Auckland) 3; Nathanael Berthon (France) 4; Felix Serralles (Puerto Rico) 5. Race two, Spirit of the Nation Cup: Hannes van Asseldonk (Netherlands) 1; Nick Cassidy (Auckland) 2; Bruno Bonifacio (Brazil) 3; Leitch 4; Raffaele Marciello (Italy) 5. Race three: van Asseldonk 1; Cassidy 2; Leitch 3; Serralles 4; Victor Sendin (France) 5. Championship points: Leitch 181, Cassidy 173, van Asseldonk 150, Hill 146, Serralles 141.

ends

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