Andy Booth and the AV8 Motorsport team got their campaign for a 3rd NZV8 Championship of to a great start at the Taupo Motorsport Park over the weekend bringing the brand new Big Ben Holden Commodore home 3rd for the weekend.

Having only turned a wheel for the 1st time a matter of days before the event the AV8 crew had high hopes for the new car that they have built over the winter off season. Friday’s two practice sessions however proved frustrating as the new car showed just how different its chassis characteristics are to the double championship winning car it replaces.

“Last year we were fastest at Taupo by a comfortable margin but the set up just didn’t transfer to the new car” Booth said.

New suspension rule changes designed to aid the Holdens also seemed to unbalance the car and had the engineering team scratching their heads looking for solutions to the lack of initial pace.

“The the huge leap in chassis behaviour along with the alter front suspension geometry caught us out a bit” explains AV8 chief engineer Wayne Anderson “We’re having to start again with this car, we ideally needed a couple of full test days on the car before coming here but we didn’t get that luxury”    

Saturday Qualifying

Some experimentation during Saturday morning’s warm up session had the team feeling they were heading in the right direction with the car and come qualifying Booth comfortably made it through the first two knock out style qualifying runs to go through to the final top ten run. Unable to get a clear lap in when the new tyres were at their best Booth, despite several further attempts, was unable to come close to last year’s pole winning lap and had to settle for 6th.  

Booth summed up his final qualifying run “Your first run on fresh tyres has to be your best and unfortunately I was held up by both Anderson and Pederson who were still on warm up laps, I probably tried to go hard too early and didn’t allow the track to clear first. I reckon a clear run might have put us 4th or even 3rd but we need a bit more time sorting the new car before challenging for pole”  

Saturday Race 1

Starting on the 3rd row for Saturday afternoon’s race 1 Booth benefitted immediately from a turn 2 scuffle involving John McIntyre and Angus Fogg. Settling into 4th behind a recovering but damaged Fogg Booth quickly set about trying to pass the Falcon whose driver’s door was now flailing loose as the car cornered. Booth made several attempts to pass but was blocked each time by the Ford driver including one side by side run the entire length of the main straight where the Big Ben car was forced so hard to the inside of the track that the exhaust from Fogg’s car actually burnt through the new vinyl livery and started to melt the fibreglass side skirt. The next lap Fogg was forced into the pits by the race officials to secure the driver’s door. This put Booth through to 3rd although being held up by Fogg had put him out of touch with the car of Paul Radisich in 2nd and he was now being hounded by AV8 stable mate Andrew Anderson. The gap between the two opened and closed all the way to the last lap but Booth held position to the finish line to give the new car a podium finish on debut.  

Sunday Race 2

Under darkened skies Booth lined up 3rd on the wet track for the weekends race 2. With the wet weather throwing another curve ball in to the car set up equation the AV8 crew made some hasty changes to the car just before heading out on to the grid. Not knowing at all how the car would behave any apprehension was quickly dissolved as Booth was immediately harassing Pole sitter Kayne Scott and Paul Radisich for the lead within the first few corners. Scott’s car was obviously not enjoying the conditions as he struggled to keep the lead. The first run down the main straight produced a thrilling three wide battle as Scott held the middle ground Radisich took the inside and Booth the outside line. Neck and neck as they approached the braking area Radisich took advantage of his inside position and grabbed the lead whilst Booth out braked Scott from the outside and slipped into second place. This was how the positions stayed for the first half of the race but as the track began to dry Booth’s rear tyres started to overheat and he came under pressure from David Besnard, so much ‘pressure’ that a large piece of the Australian’s headlight was extracted from Booth’s rear bumper after the race!! Ultimately Besnard's attempts to catch Booth also took their toll on his tyres and he began to drop back. It was then John McIntyre, whose car had come on strong as the track dried, who began knocking on Booth’s rear bumper.  

“Johnny’s car was getting better and better as the track dried whilst myself and the Rat (Radisich) were really struggling with rear grip” Booth explained “I held him out for a long time but in the end he just had too much drive on to the straight and slipped past”  

Booth held 3rd place to repeat his first race result and collect 60 more invaluable championship points.  

Sunday Race 3

The Big Ben Commodore lined up 25th out of the 27 cars for Sunday’s full reverse grid final race. A storming run in the opening laps saw Booth finish the first lap in 18th, the second lap in 15th and the third lap in 12th. Continuing to progress through the field at the rate of around one place every 2 laps Booth was again starting to struggle with the car’s handling. Experimenting with car set up the AV8 team had produced a more drivable car but one that was still lacking rear grip, a characteristic that grew as the race progressed. By lap 8 the Big Ben car was joined by the Falcon of defending champion McIntyre and then the HPM Falcon of Paul Radisich, these three then became embroiled in a spectacular 10 lap battle royal as Booth, struggling with the deteriorating handling of his car, desperately defended his position against the relentless McIntyre who was in turn coming under sustained attack from Radisich.  

“it was seriously intense!” enthused Booth “I was working so hard to keep those guys back there, Johnny obviously had a major car speed advantage but no way was I going to give up easily”  

McIntyre at one point got passed Booth into turn 5 but pulled across and let him back through as he realised he’d made contact with the back of the Commodore through turn 4 half spinning Booth, if competitors gain advantage from contact with another car they are allowed to immediately redress the situation without further penalty. The positions remained unchanged until 2 laps from the end when the battling trio caught up to the Holden of Nick Ross. Ross made a mistake under brakes into turn 7 allowing Booth up the inside. Exiting the corner Booth pulled ahead with momentum on the inside line through the long sweeping turn 8. Turning into the fast right hand turn 9 the rear of Booth’s car made light contact with Ross’s car sending Booth off onto the grass rejoining behind the two Falcons. Booth dived to the inside of Radisich into the following braking area and made the pass stick coming onto the main straight. The positions stayed this way for the next 1.5 laps to the chequered flag Booth crossing the line 7th a mere 0.4 of a second ahead of Radisich.  

“I was slogging my guts out to keep Mac and Rat at bay, I’m sure I could’ve kept them behind but I got out of shape through 9 going past Nick (Ross), he must’ve just had his nose up inside me as I turned in and the was a little touch.” Booth explained “It was hard work for sure, we didn’t have the car speed this weekend but have managed to race our way to some strong results. Now we can get on with some serious testing with this new Big Ben Commodore and iron out the bugs, then we can focus on race wins and a 3rd championship”  

Race 3 winner Angus Fogg was later excluded from the results for a technical infringement elevating Booth to 6th position.  

Booth lays 3 equal in the championship with John McIntyre on 165 points behind joint leaders Kayne Scott and Paul Radisich on 184 points    

The BNT V8 Series now moves to round 2 at Auckland’s Pukekohe Park Raceway on November 7-9  

Andy Booth and AV8 Motorsport gratefully receive support from:
Big Ben Pies, Wynns, Metalman, Task Transactions, Precision Autowerk, ET Equipment, Advanti Racing, Orix, New Balance, Custom Auto Glass, Signature Group