Motorsport: Booth gets new look

Andy Booth chases third-straight V8 championship in same car but with a new sponsor

Same car, same driver, same engineer but Andy Booth will have a new look when he tries to make it three New Zealand V8 titles in a row this season.

The 31-year-old will drive the Holden Commodore, owned and prepared by Wayne Anderson, that has won the last two titles. But this year it will run in the colours of new sponsor Video Ezy.

Last season Booth and Paul Manuell ran as a team under the Orix banner. This year the team will be called Force Motorsport, and only Manuell will sport the Orix colours.

"The best comparison is with the Stone Brothers in the V8 Supercars," said Booth. "They run cars for Marcos Ambrose and Russell Ingall, but they have different sponsors.

"Paul and I worked well together last season, and the sharing of data definitely helps to improve the performance of our cars. Three in a row sounds good to me, and I will be delighted if Paul is second behind me."

Wade Henshaw, the Christchurch driver who led the championship until the last race, will not be competing this year, but he is preparing a Holden for young Queenslander Shannon O'Brien, who won the Formula Ford championship last season.

Two other Aussies will be competing. Cameron McLean, who competed in the last round last season, will drive the Ford prepared by Stephen Richards in Paeroa. Luke Youlden, an endurance driver for the Stone Brothers Racing team, will have the Ford previously driven by Shane Drake.

Team Kiwi, which missed last season, returns with a development team using the Holdens driven by Henshaw and Mike Pero.

Five times national kart champion and winner of the Formula Challenge series, Gene Rollinson, will fill one seat, and Jason Liefting, who has been learning the Australian tracks for the last two seasons in the Australian Formula Ford series, will take up the other.

Paul Radisich, who campaigns the team's V8 Supercar across the Tasman, will act as mentor for the two drivers.

Last season's top Ford driver, John McIntyre, is back to try to improve on his third placing. His latest driving has been in the Aussie V8 utes, which are expected to bring their show to Manfeild in February.

Kayne Scott, who will be driving a V8 Supercar at Bathurst next week, will be joined in the Petch team back home by Brent Collins, the Timaru driver who won the inaugural Toyota single-seater title.

The season starts at Pukekohe on November 4, and each round will have sprint races on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning with a longer race on Sunday afternoon. Already strict tyre restrictions have been further tightened.

2005-06 Championship

Round 1: November 4-6, Pukekohe
Round 2: November 25-27, Ruapuna
Round 3: January 13-15, 2006, Teretonga
Round 4: January 20-22, Timaru
Round 5: February 17-19, Manfeild
Round 6: March 17-19, Taupo
Round 7: April 21-23, Pukekohe (V8 Supercar event)