Motorsport: Canny heads needed for Pukekohe race

By BOB PEARCE

Tortoise and hare tactics are likely to dominate the second running of the LK500 touring car endurance race at Pukekohe on Sunday.

The four-hour race will pit 15 V8 Fords and Holdens against 13 two-litre touring cars, mainly BMWs, Toyotas and Nissans.

The V8s are capable of consistently quicker lap times, but the two-litre cars should be more fuel efficient and need only one pit stop.

This year the regulations have been changed to stipulate a four-hour rather than a 500km race, emphasising the fuel economy difference.

Last year's event, won by Andrew Fawcet and Wayne Huxford in a Ford Falcon V8, was so disrupted by rain and a crash, which eliminated half the field, that tactics were largely untested.

Simon Wills and Mark Pedersen shared a Holden V8 last time and Wills led for much of his stint before Pedersen was caught up in the front-straight carnage.

This year, Wills, the newly crowned Australian Formula Holden champion, will share an International Motorsport BMW with Brett Riley.

Pedersen is team manager and reserve driver for the two-car Ford Falcon team, who include V8 Supercar ace Paul Radisich.

Wills believes the BMW will become a factor later in the race when the V8s are forced to make extra pit stops for fuel and possibly brake pads.

"I actually ran out of fuel last year 10 laps earlier than we expected," Wills said. "By that stage, the brakes were starting to struggle.

"Certainly, if everyone races away at the start like last year, the cars aren't going to last the four hours. I actually backed off a bit for the first 10 laps until things settled down.

"I haven't driven a BMW before, but I'm sure we'll be very strong when it counts at the end."

Pedersen, who has been closely involved in the building of his team's two Falcons, has a different view of the V8-two-litre battle.

"We learnt a lot from last year," he said. "We will need two stops for fuel, but I'm sure we won't have brake problems. We ran out of fuel last year because of a mistake with the tank and that won't happen again.

"The BMWs are not very different in straight lap times, but in a long race you run into traffic and the power difference is important then. They can lose three or four seconds a lap."

Pedersen believes safety-car intervention is inevitable in a four-hour race and there will be opportunities for unscheduled pit stops and driver changes.

"I learned from working on Indycars in the States that as long as you keep in touch, pace car interventions mean that you come back into contention in what is usually a sprint race to the finish."

Pedersen's PSM team will have Radisich paired with Grant Baker and Matthew Halliday with Shane McKillen.

Halliday is not due back until Friday from the United States where he has been chasing an Indy Lights drive.

Radisich has always been an aggressive driver, but Pedersen hopes to be able to settle him into a race-finishing pace.

"We've got his father and his brother working with us, so hopefully we'll be able to keep him in check."

Last year's winners, Fawcet and Huxford, are back in a Falcon EL, second-placed Bruce Kennedy and Dave Slater have a Commodore VS, and International Motorsport's second BMW 320i, which finished third last year, will again be piloted by Kevin Bell and Rod Hicks.

There are two of the latest VT Commodores in the hands of Paul Manuell and Paul Pedersen and Wayne and Andrew Anderson.

Team Kiwi will field two Nissan Primeras, with their Bathurst drivers, Jason Richards and Angus Fogg, paired in one and Ian Spurle and Mark Porter in the other.

The Lexus, which finished fourth last year, will be driven by Barrie Thomlinson and Owen Evans.

There will be qualifying and a Bathurst-style Superpole face-off on Saturday, when admission is free. The race will start at 1.30 pm on Sunday.

* * *

Alan Ferguson's gamble in taking his New Zealand-built Transam car to race in the United States paid off at Las Vegas.

Driven by New Zealand champion Craig Baird, Ferguson's Camaro finished second in a big field of top American racers.

* * *

Kawerau rider Tony Rees is relishing the prospect of taking on top Australian motorcycle road-racer Tony Curtain in the Formula Xtreme Transtasman Challenge at Pukekohe on Saturday and Sunday.

Rees, on his Yamaha R1, finished third behind Curtain and Shannon Johnson in the Formula Xtreme series in Australia.

Curtain and Radar Team Yamaha team-mate Craig Coxhell head a six-man Australian contingent who will take on the Kiwis in a three-race series.

The other Australians are Damian Cudlin (Yamaha), Rob Carrall (Honda), Ian Hambridge (Honda) and David Butler (Ducati).

Among the Kiwis trying to qualify for the four-man team contest will be Jared Love (Kawasaki), Dean Fulton (Kawasaki), Paul Gee (Yamaha), Bruce Telford (Aprillia) and Ray Clee (Honda).

There will also be races for open and 600cc sports production on Saturday and Sunday.

* * *

Brazilian Gil de Ferran yesterday won the Champ Car championship when he finished third behind Christian Fittipaldi and Roberto Moreno in the final race at Fontana in California.

In a crash-plagued race, Casey Mears, who finished third behind Scott Dixon in the Indy Lights championship, finished fourth on his Champ Car debut.