Kiwis invade Bathurst for V8 Supercar classic

Media release from V8 SuperTourers

Tuesday 8 October

Kiwis invade Bathurst for V8 Supercar classic

No fewer than 11 Kiwi drivers will start the classic Bathurst 1000km race for V8 Supercars in New South Wales this weekend, and several are well placed for success.

Three of them, Shane Van Gisbergen, Fabian Coulthard and Scott McLaughlin, are full-time Supercar drivers and all have won races this year. They are all paired with accomplished co-drivers – Jeroen Bleekemolen, Luke Youlden and Jack Perkins respectively – and can expect to run at the front.

The other eight Kiwis fulfil co-driving roles, most notably four-times Bathurst winner Greg Murphy.

The Kiwi V8 hero is no longer a full-time Supercar driver but his reputation has earned him a plum co-driving role, with former champion James Courtney in the Holden Racing Team.

Murphy has proved he still has the speed by winning the sprint championship in New Zealand’s BNT V8 SuperTourer series ahead of, among others, Van Gisbergen and McLaughlin. He believes he and Courtney have a very realistic chance of victory in Sunday’s gruelling race.

Aucklander Daniel Gaunt, now based in Melbourne, has also landed a drive in a factory team, one of the Nissan Altimas run by the Kelly family outfit. He races with Michael Caruso, who has had one podium finish in the debut season for the Nissans.

“Caruso’s had some mega results at Bathurst in the past – fifth last year and third the year before that,” Gaunt said.

The Nissans handle very well in the corners but have not been able to quite match the power of the thoroughly-developed Ford and Holden engines.

“The middle sector [the series of fast corners across the top of Mt Panorama] I think will be where we shine,” Gaunt said. “When you get that right it’s amazing – you know you’re alive when you get that part right, with the walls beside you, it’s all fourth-gear stuff, close to 200kmh. It’s mega.

“The other sectors have those long straights and we might be a little bit down in there but we’ll do the best we can with what we’ve got, that’s my approach to it.”

Bathurst is a premier event followed by motorsport fans around the world, Gaunt says.

“With social media the way it is now I’ve got friends all over the world and last year they tweeted and you could tell they were watching it, with all the different stations around the world that cover it,” he said.

Gaunt stands fourth in the V8 SuperTourers championship and says racing these fast cars in his home country has kept him race-sharp while some of the other Bathurst co-drivers have only a few meetings each year.

“Especially now with the Car of the Future [the new Supercar formula] the Supercars and SuperTourers are closer than ever,” he said.

The other Kiwi co-drivers are Jonny Reid, Craig Baird, Steven Richards, John McIntyre, Chris Pither and Matt Halliday. McIntyre, Baird and Reid have all been racing SuperTourers, the feature class of the Hankook Super Series.

McIntyre joins the factory-backed Ford Performance Racing squad to partner Alex Davison, who paired with Van Gisbergen to win last month’s Aegis Oils 400 SuperTourers endurance race at Hampton Downs.

ENDS

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