A1GP World Cup of Motorsport prepares to hit the track for the first races of 2009 when the series descends on New Zealand this week for its third visit to the Taupo Motorsport Park.
For the A1GP Taupo event, the series will break with tradition and the Sprint race will have a standing and not a rolling start. The decision was taken on safety grounds, as in the past there have been collisions due to the tight ‘s’ bend close to the start.
Home nation A1 Team New Zealand has selected 22-year-old Chris van der Drift to star for his nation on home ground. The Hamilton born racer was chosen to race in A1GP Taupo, New Zealand ahead of fellow team members Earl Bamber and Jonny Reid. The team has faith that the 2008 International Formula Master champion can produce the goods in front of all the cheering fans this weekend.
“As a proven championship winner and impressively fast driver, the selection of van der Drift to drive at Taupo makes sense,” said a statement from the team that has Colin Giltrap, a long time supporter of New Zealand racing talent, as its seat holder.
The statement went on to explain why the team’s most capped driver, Johnny Reid, will not be in the car: “While there are no doubts as to Reid’s race winning ability in A1GP, the tight format of an A1GP weekend provides a limited number of practice laps. The restricted nature of practice at Taupo would not allow Reid a reasonable number of laps to properly familiarise himself with the new A1GP Powered by Ferrari car.”
As the team’s only rookie, van der Drift will have the advantage of running in the additional Friday morning rookie session, and says he won’t let the pressure of racing in front of a home crowd get too much for him.
“Taupo is an important race for the team,” he said. “Seeing as I haven’t done much racing in New Zealand in my single-seater career, it’s so fantastic to have the opportunity to drive Black Beauty at Taupo.
“I haven’t driven on the circuit in its current form, but I know the circuit and have walked it when I was helping Earl Bamber in 2006. I’ll treat Taupo like any other race. I don’t feel too much pressure, and won’t let that get in the way of my performance.”
Jonny Reid will also be in attendance, co-hosting for TV3 New Zealand from the A1GP pit lane alongside Shaun Summerfield and also racing in the Porsche GT3 Cup.
A1 Team Brazil’s Felipe Guimarães will be in action again and will be able to call upon some extra advice from the team’s seat holder, two-time Formula One world champion and two time Indianapolis 500 winner, Emerson Fittipaldi. Fittipaldi demonstrated kiwi Grand Prix legend Denny Hulme’s McLaren M23 at the series’ first race there in 2007. The Brazilian believes the event will test the skills of the A1GP drivers to the very limit, commenting: “In this new generation of A1GP Powered By Ferrari cars, the Taupo circuit will be a supreme challenge for the drivers. Its infield section should provide a spectacular opportunity for the New Zealand race fans to see these machines and their drivers on the limits. These are real thoroughbred racing machines capable of rivalling anything and they will be extremely quick on this circuit.
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