For the first time in his motor sports career, IRWIN Racing s Alan Gurr will tackle Pukekohe Raceway south of Auckland at the third round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series on 20-22 April.
Apart from a handful of laps in a hire car, Gurr has never raced at the short and fast NZ track.
One of the key improvements Gurr will have is a new specification engine.
“There are a lot of new things about the race at Pukekohe, but the goal remains the same and that s to score good championship points, ” said Gurr
“We will take what we learnt from the first two rounds and apply that in NZ. I can t see why we won t be in for a strong result.
“The chassis has been very good. Now we can try and show that form with a new engine package.
“The last race in Perth our teammate Jason Bright had his weekend end early after a Friday accident. It was handy having Jason around for guidance, but it will be much better to have both cars on the track.
“We want to get into the final 20 cars during qualifying. Being such a short track, it could be tough to get a clean lap in the opening session of qualifying. However, if we can get through that we could easily start the first race in the top half of the field. “
Race Engineer Greg Foletta knows the town of Pukekohe well after many years of competing with the Possum Bourne Motorsport prepared Subaru Rally Team. However, this will be his first experience of the race track.
“I have been there, but only to watch, ” said Foletta.
“I know that it can be a tricky place to get the optimum performance from a race car, but we are confident with our chassis.
“Alan and I have spoken about changes to the car s set-up and really he s been very pleased with it. So there s nothing too dramatic in that sense.
“The new engine is a bonus and will be critical in improving the power down out of the hairpin and the run onto the back straight.
“The issues with our sister #25 car have not effected our preparations and that has let us focus on getting a good result in NZ. “
Gurr will get his first taste of the Pukekohe track in an extended two-hour practice session on Friday afternoon. Saturday includes the elimination-styled qualifying followed by the opening 43-lap race. Sunday s features two more 43-lap races.
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