In a rare 'off week' for the Cup teams, that leaves not much in the way of touring car racing as we only have the Nationwide race from Mexico City, right?
Not really...if you guys get a live feed from the V8 Supercars that is.
Hamilton...home of the Waikato Chiefs, perennial underachievers in the Super Rugby but the 'Mooloo men' can claim they were the first province to win the revamped National Provincial Championship (rebadged as the Air NZ Cup) in 2006 and also a rather popular place to buy wine from. Actually, Hamilton are having a big weekend this week as not only is the V8 round there but the Chiefs host the unbeaten Canterbury Crusaders in what will probably be, if it isn't already, a sellout game of rugby on Friday night.
For he past seven odd years, the New Zealand round of the V8 Supercars was held near the country's biggest city; Auckland. The Pukekohe circuit was a Holden benefit, with hometown boy, Greg Murphy, using it as his personal playground as he stomped on everyone for the first few years before the other Holden teams nicked his setup and were able to topple him for the round win.
However, the contract for Pukekohe ran out last year as the V8's wanted a street course instead of a purpose-built track...and the town of Hamilton stepped in to fill that gap. Not only that, but they also put their hand up to host the WRC round when that contract ran out a couple years ago as well...ensuring NZ kept their place on the rally calender.
So, welcome everyone, to the motoring capital of New Zealand.
The round is a three-race sprint one, like Pukekohe was, and will kick off with practice tomorrow (Friday) with both qualifying and race one held on Saturday while races two and three are on the Sunday.
track map of the Hamilton round of the V8 Supercars.
Alas, the weather may prove to steal the show as the North Island has been pretty much in constant rain so far in April (though the forecast looks ok for the weekend...but we're only halfway through the week of course). That will make things much more interesting as a few drivers have already said that this could be a crash-fest round and the slippery roads would only exaggerate those beliefs. Common sense says that drivers who excel on the streets of Adelaide and the Gold Coast will be the ones to beat...but if the rains come down, it's anyone's guess who will be in front after three races and 400km around the streets of Hamilton.
ulterior motive is for Will to see this and put it in his trifecta so he'll know how the round will go with its three race format and can adjust it however he wants (per race, overall round, etc), lol
Dang it! I wish I had the SPPED channel!! I am going to miss this so you'll have to give us a report afterwards Tez. THey are racing right thru where we stayed on our H-moon. I'll be stuck watching viva Mexico instead...thanks for the overview!
Hopefully William can include this in the Trifecta this week. I'll have to do some research though...since I'm not really familiar with the drivers. I know you did a few blogs on V8's before, so I can always go back and read them for some of the top drivers.
Sorry you will not get to go. Hey I found a news flash. The director of the Super V-8 series is cutting back the field of cars to 28 to get rid of the also rans. This is supposed to make the field more racy.
UUMMM. Wonder if NASCAR might try that. Sure seems we have our plentifull share of the also rans every week in NASCAR too. OOPPS ! There goes the open wheel drivers.
Photo - Are you making a serious statement here? Just because Hornish is the only rookie (former) open wheeler in the top 35??? (well just barely). Hey Montoya is faring a little bit better for his second season.
photo; yeah I heard that today too...won't happen in NASCAR since the V8's can only have 2 cars per team so it'd be "bye-bye Casey and Jr" from Rick if they had to do it in Cup, lol
hey tez, i am a little confused as to the rules here. is there a clear cut winner declared after the entire weekends 3 events? is there a possiblity of a tie? do you have to run the same car in all events? it is going in the tri, but i'm having trouble fitting it into the format.
Last edited by williamwilman on April 17th at 11:39 AM.
Will; yeah there is the possibility of a tie but in that case they go based on the results in each of the races to determine the overall winner of the weekend.
Tez is a rare creature; an Australian who was living in New Zealand before moving to Canada. He's also a Civil Engineer who is hoping to spend his Monday to Friday sitting in front of a computer surfing the inter...uh, working hard for an Engineering Consultant or Contractor when he finds a job. His heart is torn between his two loves; F1 and NASCAR.
Due to his high interest in those, his blogs will likely focus on them with the occasional foray into sports that don't get much (if any) mention on this website. All blogs and/or comments will more than likely have his usual dollop of sarcasm and general Aussie spin on them.
Amazingly, he also managed to score 2 MiB nominations on consecutive days (August 5 & 6, 2007) after announcing he had been keeping track of them...he's considering hiding under his bed as a result.
