It was a frustrating day for Luke Youlden and the Powerbuilt Racing Team at the final round of the NZV8s Championship at Pukekohe Park, south of Auckland today.
Youlden finished 7th in this afternoon’s race, the first of three scheduled for the weekend. After the race the Melbourne based driver revealed the Powerbuilt Falcon was still suffering the same engine dramas experienced at the previous round at Teretonga. On that occasion the engine was 30 horsepower down and again today a loss of power was evident as the cars raced down Pukekohe’s long back straight.
“The team has worked extremely hard on the problem between rounds, ” said Youlden in the pits after today’s race. “We cured it at a test session last week and all of a sudden it is back. We are losing about three to four car lengths down the back straight and that equates to 4/10ths of a second. We’ve gained in chassis performance and our corner and corner exit speed since we were last here but we are losing about eight kilometres an hour on the back straight. It’s frustrating because we’ve got a really competitive car and the chassis is working really, really well. The team has changed everything but at the moment we can’t find the answer. We will endeavour to overcome it. “
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