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Home / Sport

Motorsport: Fat lady ready to serenade the Swiss

By Eric Thompson
NZ Herald·
2 May, 2008 05:00 PM3 mins to read

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KEY POINTS:

The fat lady may not be centre stage and singing, but she's dressed, finished her voice scales and ready to go.

With a 29 point lead over New Zealand, the 2008 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport championship is Switzerland's to throw away. All they have to do to
take the title is score points in both races.

Kiwi driver Jonny Reid, on the other hand, has to win both races and hope the Swiss pilot Neel Jani scores no more than two points. No matter how you look at it, it's a tall order.

"I can't wait for the weekend to start. I'll be going flat out from the start of the weekend," said Reid. "We're definitely capable of winning both races and putting the pressure on Switzerland. If the Swiss hang back or try and play it safe, anything could happen."

Brands Hatch is a tight, fast track that'll be hard to pass on, with the odd stop-start corner coupled with fast, sweeping bends. Qualifying will be very important as drivers will want to be at the front of the grid to avoid any first corner mayhem at the infamous Paddock Hill bend.

Last year at the final round of the A1 championship, Reid smacked into a barrier, injuring his hand. Matt Halliday took over and finished in the points to secure second place for New Zealand in the series.

"I've never raced at Brands before but I've done a couple of laps around it. I like it though, it's got lots of elevation and Paddock Hill bend just drops away like you'll never believe.

"You catch the compression halfway down and your head feels like it's going through your stomach. With compression you get lots of grip and the steering sort of locks. After that there's all the fast stuff out the back. A challenging course."

A1 Team.NZL are approaching the weekend the same way they have every other round. Providing Reid with a quick car and letting him get on with the task at hand; winning and not worrying about what the other drivers are doing.

Chris van der Drift has been named as the rookie driver for the weekend and took part in the two 25-minute sessions. Van der Drift knows Brands Hatch well, having raced there in Formula Master and will acquire much needed data the team missed out on last year due to Reid's crash.

Van der Drift is no stranger to the A1 car as he tested Black Beauty back in 2006 at Silverstone.

Three times New Zealand have lead the championship, only to gift it back to Switzerland in the later part of the series through basic errors.

"This is our chance to end the season well and prove we are the best," said Reid.

Qualifying is tomorrow morning with the sprint race at 10pm and the feature race starting at 2am on Monday morning.

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