LG Falcon: Pukekohe Park Race Report - November 2008

The LG Motorsport team had an extremely eventful weekend at round two of the 2008-2009 New Zealand V8s Championship at Pukekohe Park in Auckland.  After a positive start in testing on Friday Angus Fogg set the equal fastest lap time in qualifying, finished the first race in 14th position, was unable to complete race two after sustaining accident damage, and finished 19th in the final reverse grid race.

QUALIFYING - 2nd
This is always a nail biting time, and today was no exception. Our qualifying is run in an all in, then top 20, top 10, elimination style. However, after posting a time of 1:01.902 (third) in the first session I broke a front swaybar, so it was a tense time in the pits for about 15 minutes while the crew replaced it, getting me out with around 5 minutes to spare for the second session where we put in two laps to post the second fastest time. Then out we went for the final top-ten shootout, and carded a time of 1:01.539, incredibly this was exactly the same time as Paul Manuell’s Orix Commodore to the last thousandth of a second! So while we were equal in the time set, in a dead heat situation the place is decided by the next fastest time set, so he was awarded pole position, and we started next to him on grid position two, so a great start to the weekend.

RACE 1 - Saturday (12 laps) - 14th
We started the race in second position on the grid behind pole setter Paul Manuell. Paul got off to a strong start, and Kayne Scott managed to slip in straight behind him through the first couple of turns, meaning I ran third for about the first four laps. In lap four John McIntyre got up close behind me, and took a dive to the inside on the approach to turn one. Part way round the very fast sweeper John and I touched wheels which tipped me off the track, resulting in a wild ride across the humps and bumps of the outfield. We crossed the finish line in 14th place behind Adam Brook, but then once again came under the wrath of series officials, having been judged to re-enter the track in a dangerous fashion after the contact with McIntyre, and resulting in contact with another car. The penalty saw us receiving no points for this race.

  1. Paul Manuell
  2. John McIntyre
  3. Dean Perkins
  4. Andrew Anderson
  5. Steve Owen
  6. Paul Pedersen
  7. Eddie Bell
  8. Dale Williams
  9. Andy Knight
  10. Cam Hardy

14. Angus Fogg (later relegated to 'not classified')

RACE 2 (Sunday) 16 laps - DNF
No doubt you’ve seen some photos or TV coverage of this race already! We started the race near the back of the grid. Again, Paul Manuell was in pole position, so effectively lead the start. The race lasted 6 seconds before being red flagged with a multi-car collision on turn one, and I’m afraid I was one of the victims. This is a real hazard with starting at the back in rolling start races, with often some over-ambitious drivers mid-pack and towards the rear. While the officials still haven’t worked out who actually was responsible for the pile-up, around seven cars were involved. The race was suspended for over two hours while the officials had the ‘Armco’ barrier repaired. During this time my crew and I with the help of some additional volunteers from other crews worked flat-out in our pit base to get the LG Falcon mobile again. We repaired all the problems, including a broken steering rack, bent diff arms, squashed muffler, smashed tail lamps, front splitter, radiator leak etc, so a huge effort for the crew, and I thank them all. Then it was back on track for a restart – this time single file formation which is deemed safer (particularly with the weakened Armco). To make things even safer the first two laps were held under the safety car. However, this one wasn’t meant to be, and I’m afraid that two laps after the safety car pulled in we had to retire from the race along the back straight. My car had broken a drive shaft. While it had visually checked out okay after the accident earlier on, it must have sustained some damage while sliding along the top of the Armco fence, and couldn’t last the distance.

  1. John McIntyre
  2. Paul Manuell
  3. Dean Perkins
  4. Andrew Anderson
  5. Paul Pedersen
  6. Kayne Scott
  7. Eddie Bell
  8. Dale Williams
  9. Michael Bristow
  10. Adam Brook

RACE 3 - Sunday (20 laps full reverse grid) - 19th
In the leadup to race three my crew worked to replace the drive shaft, and further tidy damage sustained in race 2. We started this race in 21st position. The grid of course was much smaller given all the cars who had sustained too much damage in race two to carry on racing. Again the race was started in single file, however we forged ahead and with three laps to go we were 10th. This wasn’t to last however, as the ‘final straw’ arrived in the form of a puncture on our right front tyre. Rather than retire, we carried on to the chequered flag at a safe pace, finishing the race in 19th.

  1. Kayne Scott
  2. Craig Baird
  3. Andrew Porter
  4. Steve Owen
  5. John Penny
  6. Andy Booth
  7. John McIntyre
  8. Paul Manuell
  9. Michael Bristow
  10. John Hepburn

19. Angus Fogg

Overall Thoughts
This was the most challenging race weekend I’ve ever had. It was great to match the pole-setter’s time, so we know we definitely have a strong package with our car-setup and engine performance. This was further proven by us gaining the fastest race lap time of the whole weekend of 1:01.765, not far away from the lap record which I still hold from 2006 (1:01.313). So that’s a real plus. As you can imagine we will have our hands full to get the LG Falcon back to 100% over the next three weeks. We have lot of panel and chassis repairs to do, I am keen to put our engine back on the ‘dyno’ to be sure its still performing at its best, plus a whole list of maintenance items and upgrades.

We look forward to our next meeting at Ruapuna Park in Christchurch, a track I have traditionally qualified and raced at very successfully. This runs from 28 – 30 November.

Posted: Sun 09 Nov 2008

Back