Motorsport: NZ V8 stars go after home title

Angus Fogg has the early lead, but several drivers are capable of overtaking him tomorrow. Photo / Supplied

Jamie Whincup may have been crowned the Australian V8 Supercars champion last weekend but New Zealand's hunt for its V8 champion has just started.

Round one was at Pukekohe at the beginning of November, and Angus Fogg has the early lead from Paul Manuell and Aussie driver Jason Bargwanna heading to Ruapuna this weekend.

Round two of the BNT NZV8s may have a depleted field because of the schism in V8 racing in New Zealand, but the competition is sure to be fast and furious.

After an opening roller-coaster round at Pukekohe, in which Fogg speared off the track in heavy rain severely damaging his Ford, the Aucklander is focused on protecting his 12-point lead.

"The car's safely ensconced in Christchurch ready to rock and roll this weekend, so we can focus on keeping the transtasman battle alive and well," said Fogg.

"Jason Bargwanna will be red-hot because he's just finished a hard season of V8 Supercar racing. Hopefully he won't have recovered 100 per cent from last Sunday's celebrations of finishing 22nd."

The Ruapuna circuit, outside Christchurch, is a flat, fast track with a technical nature that has caused a few drivers to come unstuck.

"It rewards being aggressive yet being very precise," said Fogg. "It's quite different for a North Island guy to go down to a track that has mainly left-hand corners. And there also seems to be a difference in the track surface composition that makes it interesting for car setup.

"The guys that have tested there usually go pretty well, so I imagine Bargwanna will be right on the pace."

Paul Manuell, who is second in the standings, has not made the trip south from his Pukekohe base, but several other drivers are capable of knocking Fogg off tomorrow afternoon.

Simon Richard finished fourth overall at Pukekohe, and the likes of Tim Edgell, John Penny and Haydn McKenzie will be poised to pounce if the leading pair make a mistake.

Edgell will be hoping for dry weather at Ruapuna this weekend as before the rain arrived last time out he was the quickest in practice, qualifying and the race before coming unstuck in the rain-soaked race while on slicks.

"I saw Foggy and Bargs go off in front of me, so I backed right off," said Edgell. "But there was just too much standing water and we had no grip whatsoever."

"Bargs and Foggy will be tough to beat. They're both quality drivers and they've stepped things up since last year. They'll be quick this weekend, let's just hope we're quicker."

Aussie import Bargwanna has a good pedigree in racing V8s, having a Bathurst title under his belt and is coming to grips with the New Zealand V8 models.

"We had our pre-season test there [Ruapuna] and we managed to go around two seconds faster than last year," said Bargwanna.

Other classes racing over the weekend include the new Sports GT category, V8 Utes, Formula Ford, Production GT and Suzuki Swifts.

The NZ V8s have one race today and two tomorrow.

Points after round one

Angus Fogg 201

Paul Manuell 195

Jason Bargwanna 189

Simon Richards 135

Tim Edgell 129

John Penny 127

Haydn McKenzie 112