1. Unquestionably the ‘landlord’ of Pukekohe after four wins and a podium finish in six starts, Greg Murphy lines up for his first start at the circuit with a team that has a strong Kiwi flavour in Tasman Motorsport. The team’s Managing Director (Greg’s father Kevin) is a Kiwi, so too are other part owners Grey Mathias and Jim Boult. Throw in Kiwi team-mate Jason Richards and sponsors from New Zealand and you have an instant Holden ‘Team Kiwi’ to combat the existing Team Kiwi Racing’s move to Ford in the off-season.
2. Amazingly, Pukekohe hasn’t been a friendly place for Craig Lowndes. It remains one of the few venues where he hasn’t won a V8 Supercar round, but has added significance as the former champ has never even finished on the podium in New Zealand. His fourth place last year was incredibly the only time he has finished in the top 10 at Pukekohe in six starts.
3. Mark Skaife equaled the late Peter Brock’s record for all-time victories in the Australian Touring Car/V8 Supercar Championship Series at Pukekohe last year but has gone winless for a full 12 months. Prior to his success for HRT in New Zealand last year, the last time he had won a solo round (ie, discounting his 2005 Bathurst and 2003 Sandown wins with Todd Kelly), was the Clipsal 500 at the beginning of 2003.
4. Holden has been the dominant force at Pukekohe ever since the Championship first visited there in 2001. With Greg Murphy taking four wins and Jason Bright and Mark Skaife one each, it hasn’t just been the wins that have fallen to Commodore. Craig Lowndes’ pole in 2005 was the only year a Falcon sat on pole as well! But Ford came close last year, filling second through to fifth behind round winner Skaife.
5. Born in New Zealand, Steven Richards isn’t regularly associated with being a Kiwi considering he has lived in Australia since the age of three. However he retains a New Zealand passport as he returns to have his second ever run at Pukekohe in a Ford. The first time – 2001 – was a disaster as he finished 27th after qualifying 15th. It’s highly likely that things will go better than that this year!
6. The control braking package from Alcon Components will be working hard for the big stop at the Pukekohe hairpin. Measuring 1.25-kilometres in length, the back straight sees cars slowing from 265 km/h back to 50 km/h on a circuit where drivers are on full throttle for 53 percent of a lap.
7. Of the 12 drivers to have competed in all six rounds held at Pukekohe from 2001 to 2006, only three – Jason Bright, Mark Skaife and Greg Murphy – have never qualified out of the top 10. The new qualifying format for 2007 could very well help change that if any of the three encounter difficulties with traffic on the short lap and miss making it through the third and final segment of qualifying.
8. Returning to the site of his first-ever podium finish in the V8 Supercar Championship Series, Ford Performance Racing’s Mark Winterbottom is one to keep an eye on. He qualified sixth last year and finished fourth in race one. He carved his way through to finish third in the reverse grid race and rounded out the weekend with third in the last race after being bumped out of the way for second by Craig Lowndes in the dying stages.
9. Despite it being a home race for him, Pukekohe has never been a happy place for Jason Richards. Forced to miss the round in 2003 after rolling his Team Dynamik Commodore in practice, the Tasman Holden driver has only ever qualified in the top 10 once (2005) and has only finished the round in the top 10 once (2004).
10. There are three V8 Supercar rookies at Pukekohe in the form of Jack Daniel’s duo Shane Price and Jack Perkins as well as Alan Gurr. None have competed at the circuit in any other form of race car.
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