Green Light #6 by JMR Racing

14 June 2012 - Issue No,6

www.jmr.co.nz

GREEN-LIGHT #6

14 June 2012 - Issue No,6

V8SuperTourer sprint champions! Hi everyone and welcome to our sixth edition of Green Light and the headline I was hoping for! As many of you will now know through TV3’s Gillette Motorsport show, TV3 news, the internet and newspapers like NZ Herald, we have won the sprint title in the inaugural season of V8SuperTourers. This is a great achievment for the team at JMR considering the challenges we have faced in relocating the team to Taupo and running two V8SuperTourers and the V8Challenge Cup car. We ended the sprint championship with a narrow (2 point!) margin over Jonny Reid and, to keep up the good work, we’ll need more fast and cosistant performances in the two-driver endurance races starting at Taupo Motorsport Park on Father’s Day (2 September). The records show: • we won one feature race (Ruapuna) • had four second places (Hampton Downs Round 1, Ruapuna Race 1, Manfeild Race 1 and 3) • and finished third once (Hampton Downs Round 4) However what is more significant is our worst result of the season, ninth in race 1 this season. When we qualified 13th for the first race and then went onto finish ninth, I said to the team that it had to be our worst result of the season. And so far, it has been. Our sprint title win is as much down to the team’s preparation as it is our on-track performance. We all agreed that we could not afford a DNF (did not finish) and that this first season would be about consistancy. We set our goal of completing every race better than ninth position, and it has worked. To have set and achieved that goal makes me very proud of the whole team at JMR.

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A wrap-up from round 4 at Hampton Downs We had very high expectations for this round after coming on very strong at Ruapuna and Manfeild. We went to the track with a completely different set-up to the first round at Hampton Downs, but it still wasn’t good enough. My engineer Jason Liefting and I probably confused ourselves by the time Friday practice had finished. We had adjusted nearly everything on the car but we just couldn’t make it work. On Saturday morning in the practice session we ran new tyres to see what our true pace was, we were in essence 0.2s off Jonny Reid and 0.5s off Scott McLauglin who was fastest all weekend. Although we were close, the car could only do that time for one lap and it then deteriorated. We went into qualifying with a slightly different set-up but most of our plans went down the drain when I crashed on the exit of pit lane! This was a first (and hopefully last) for me! When these Hankook tyres are brand new, they are very slippery, so I carefully exited pit lane at about 50 kp/h in third gear. But then I put my foot into it and the big 7-litre V8 caused the car to snap on me. I couldn’t recover the slide and it felt like slow motion as I slid onto the grass and into the barrier. Apart from the embarrassment, from inside the car I thought it was quite badly damaged. The steering wheel wasn’t pointing straight and I am sure we had just given away the championship. But when I arrived back in the pits the JMR team quickly had the car up on the air-jacks, assessing the damage. Incredibly, everything was safe to continue - although it didn’t feel quite right, the team were happy enough to send me back out. My first laps on these tyres were less than accurate, but I came in to change onto the next set and found some speed right on the last lap of qualifying, finishing with a time of 1.04.4 and ninth on the grid – a good effort considering that we could have been starting off the back without any qualifying points. In Saturday’s race one, #47 handled reasonably well and I was able to make a great start and then hold onto seventh for most of the race. Near the end, Jonny Reid’s team-mate Ant Pedersen pulled off to the side of the track with a gearbox failure and then I passed Andy Knight with two laps to go. I finished fifth which was a solid effort, but Jonny Reid, who had the championship lead coming into this round, finished third and extended his lead over me. On Sunday morning we held an excellent team meeting that I think was the catayst for our sprint title win. Everyone in the team had their input on the small things that we could improve on, including the driver who crashed in qualifying! As a team we certainly performed better over the rest of the day and we will take those lessons into the rest of the year. In race two we started fifth and the car was the best it had been all weekend, not good enough to win but good enough to fight in the top five. During that race Reid was ahead of us again until his car also stopped with a gearbox failure. I drove onto third place and our sixth podium finish of the season. We were in the lead now by 60 points going into the last race.

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A wrap-up from round 4 at Hampton Downs cont... Everything looked good for Sunday’s final race. We narrowly made it for the race start. Other teams had reported an issue with the fuel system and so we only just finished checking our system before we were due to leave the pit lane. We were third on the grid with Reid tenth. We made some minor adjustments to the car to try and improve its drive off the last corner and its stability into turn two. We got it wrong! What we have found with the V8SuperTourers is they work in a very small set-up window and we had just moved outside of that (again)!. I still had Reid behind me for most of the race until my gearbox had a few issues of its own. About 10 laps into the 35-lapper, I went to change to fifth gear but it changed back into fourth! This went on intermittently for the next 25 laps and I lost places, dropping all the way to ninth. I could see Reid in the distance moving into fourth and I thought I needed another position to win the title. Normally I would have had the team telling me the points situation in my radio, but static in my earpiece meant that I had to un-plug the radio cord. I managed to pass Paul Manuell with two laps to go but I still didn’t know if that was enough for the championship. Coming onto the main straight for the last time I had Manuell about four car lengths behind me. On the run up to the line, the gearbox decided to go from fourth to sixth in one go - I just managed to get it back into fifth and power over the line, just 0.2s ahead of Manuell. I drove around on the parade lap, thinking we hadn’t done it. I went to drive the car into pit lane but the team were there to meet me, telling me I had to reverse back and drive to the podium so we could celebrate! To say that was a relief is a massive understatement. Now we can focus on improving our understanding of how the car works best by testing at Taupo. We move into the two-driver endurance phase of the championship now with young Kiwi star Jono Lester joining me in #47 for the three endurance races. I have chosen Jono because he is a young Kiwi with a great pedigree having raced Porsches in New Zealand and overseas. He is currently driving a Mercedes Benz in a key Japanese endurance series, so he’s race-fit and ready to go [See page 24 for more.] We will be out testing with Jono and the endurance driver for Steve Ricahrds’ #556 car next Wednesday at Taupo Motorsport Park. More to come on the announcement of that driver soon! Even though we have a mid-season break from racing, it’s still busy! After completing two ride days in the next fortnight we will strip the cars down completely and start preparing them for the two-driver races. We will then take the cars and transporter to CRC Speedshow at Auckland’s ASB Showgrounds on 21-22 July. Remember the first two-driver endurance race will be at Taupo on 2 September (Father’s Day). Look for more details on ticket pricing and hospitality packages in the coming weeks.

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Key highlights from the Hampton Downs weekend • • • • •

Regained the championship lead after the Sunday morning 25-lap race. Finished the final race for the sprint championship in eighth - 0.2sec ahead of being ninth. The race position left us with a winning margin of two points for the championship title. John recorded his sixth podium result (3rd in race 2) in the sprint series - most of any driver. Steve finished 10th overall in the standings out of 19 drivers.

14 June 2012 - Issue No,6

JMR Hampton Downs photo gallery

14 June 2012 - Issue No,6

Race results: Round 4 Hampton Downs

Saturday, 2 June Qualifying Pos 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

No. 93 2 5 99 23 96 22 51 47 15 12 31 10 247 556 27 69

Name Scott McLaughlin Jonny Reid Andy Knight Kayne Scott Andy Booth Ant Pedersen Andre Heimgartner Greg Murphy John McIntyre Paul Manuell Geoff Emery Daniel Gaunt Richard Moore Angus Fogg Steven Richards Craig Baird Eddie Bell

Best time 1:03.829 1:03.918 1:04.181 1:04.192 1:04.278 1:04.294 1:04.379 1:04.389 1:04.401 1:04.406 1:04.458 1:04.481 1:04.547 1:04.634 1:04.703 1:04.924 1:05.117

In lap 13 14 12 2 7 12 10 9 11 15 13 13 13 11 5 9 13

Best speed Diff Gap 148.334 148.127 0.089 0.089 147.520 0.352 0.263 147.495 0.363 0.011 147.298 0.449 0.086 147.261 0.465 0.016 147.067 0.550 0.085 147.044 0.560 0.010 147.016 0.572 0.012 147.005 0.577 0.005 146.886 0.629 0.052 146.834 0.652 0.023 146.684 0.718 0.066 146.486 0.805 0.087 146.330 0.874 0.069 145.832 1.095 0.221 145.400 1.288 0.193

Laps 13 14 14 12 11 14 12 12 12 15 13 16 13 11 14 14 13

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Race results: Round 4 Hampton Downs Saturday, 2 June Race 1, 20 laps Pos No. Name 1 93 Scott McLaughlin 2 23 Andy Booth 3 2 Jonny Reid 4 51 Greg Murphy 5 47 John McIntyre 6 99 Kayne Scott 7 15 Paul Manuell 8 22 Andre Heimgartner 9 5 Andy Knight 10 556 Steven Richards 11 69 Eddie Bell 12 12 Geoff Emery 13 247 Angus Fogg 14 31 Daniel Gaunt Not classified (75% = 15 Laps) 15 96 Ant Pedersen 16 10 Richard Moore 17 27 Craig Baird

Laps 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20

Total time Diff 21:40.491 21:43.209 2.718 21:44.110 3.619 21:45.848 5.357 21:53.583 13.092 21:55.908 15.417 21:56.108 15.617 21:56.370 15.879 22:00.120 19.629 22:00.479 19.988 22:04.372 23.881 22:04.918 24.427 22:24.078 43.587 22:27.383 46.892

11 0 0

12:03.400 4.240 4.532

Best time 1:04.232 1:04.521 1:04.549 1:04.581 1:04.937 1:04.847 1:04.905 1:04.934 1:04.790 1:04.678 1:05.130 1:04.979 1:05.159 1:04.860

9 Laps 1:04.672 20 Laps --:--:--.--- 0.292 --:--:--.---

In lap 7 7 14 4 10 9 7 9 11 18 5 18 4 20

Best speed 147.403 146.743 146.679 146.607 145.803 146.005 145.875 145.810 146.134 146.387 145.371 145.709 145.306 145.976

9 0 0

146.400 -

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Race results: Round 4 Hampton Downs Sunday, 3 June Race 2, 25 laps Pos No. Name 1 93 Scott McLaughlin 2 23 Andy Booth 3 47 John McIntyre 4 22 Andre Heimgartner 5 51 Greg Murphy 6 5 Andy Knight 7 27 Craig Baird 8 31 Daniel Gaunt 9 69 Eddie Bell 10 99 Kayne Scott 11 12 Geoff Emery 12 15 Paul Manuell 13 247 Angus Fogg 14 96 Ant Pedersen 15 556 Steven Richards Not classified (75% = 19 Laps) 16 2 Jonny Reid 17 10 Richard Moore

Laps 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 25 24 24

Total time Diff 31:53.977 31:54.661 0.684 31:55.899 1.922 31:56.402 2.425 31:57.795 3.818 31:59.082 5.105 31:59.957 5.980 32:00.114 6.137 32:01.300 7.323 32:03.489 9.512 32:04.036 10.059 32:14.506 20.529 32:18.323 24.346 32:00.496 1 Lap 32:04.497 4.001

12 5

15:19.531 6:20.997

Best time 1:04.368 1:04.560 1:04.936 1:04.865 1:05.309 1:05.149 1:05.287 1:05.090 1:05.669 1:05.366 1:05.757 1:05.167 1:05.396 1:05.201 1:05.641

13 Laps 1:04.793 20 Laps 1:08.334

In lap 6 25 25 12 12 24 12 14 5 11 12 25 13 11 4

Best speed 147.092 146.654 145.805 145.965 144.972 145.328 145.021 145.460 144.178 144.846 143.985 145.288 144.779 145.212 144.239

12 4

146.127 138.555

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Race results: Round 4 Hampton Downs Sunday, 3 June Race 3, 30 laps Pos No. Name 1 93 Scott McLaughlin 2 23 Andy Booth 3 51 Greg Murphy 4 2 Jonny Reid 5 22 Andre Heimgartner 6 96 Ant Pedersen 7 5 Andy Knight 8 47 John McIntyre 9 15 Paul Manuell 10 556 Steven Richards 11 31 Daniel Gaunt 12 12 Geoff Emery 13 10 Richard Moore 14 247 Angus Fogg Not classified (75% = 27 Laps) 15 69 Eddie Bell 16 27 Craig Baird 17 99 Kayne Scott

Laps 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35 35

Total time Diff 41:40.604 41:41.472 0.868 41:42.554 1.950 41:43.741 3.137 41:45.177 4.573 41:45.579 4.975 41:45.961 5.357 41:48.203 7.599 41:48.232 7.628 41:48.497 7.893 41:49.479 8.875 41:51.150 10.546 41:51.533 10.929 41:52.087 11.483

9 6 1

22:56.797 8:30.449 1:10.440

Best time 1:04.504 1:04.518 1:04.626 1:04.891 1:04.959 1:05.001 1:04.987 1:05.128 1:05.053 1:05.101 1:05.503 1:05.518 1:05.082 1:05.653

26 Laps 1:05.877 29 Laps 1:06.857 34 Laps 1:08.727

In lap 16 15 20 23 23 20 15 19 11 29 21 22 10 29

Best speed 146.782 146.750 146.505 145.906 145.753 145.659 145.691 145.375 145.543 145.436 144.543 144.510 145.478 144.213

8 6 1

143.722 141.616 137.762

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V8SuperTourer points after round 4 Points - Round 4 Hampton Downs 1-3 June 2012 Car No Driver 47 John McIntyre 2 Jonny Reid 51 Greg Murphy 23 Andy Booth 99 Kayne Scott 96 Ant Pedersen 93 Scott McLaughlin 5 Andy Knight 27 Craig Baird 556 Steven Richards 22 Andre Heimgartner 69 Eddie Bell 15 Paul Manuell 10 Richard Moore 51 Fabian Coulthard 12 Geoff Emery 66 Colin Corkery 31 Daniel Gaunt 247 Angus Fogg

Qual Points 30 63 33 46 51 41 70 57 0 0 37 0 27 0 0 0 0 0 0

Race 1 Points FL 131 162 146 180 118 0 210 20 86 0 77 96 70 106 0 0 63 0 51 56

Race 2 Points FL 162 0 131 180 77 51 210 20 118 106 46 146 86 63 0 0 70 0 96 56

Feature Race Round Points Overall points Points FL 110 433 2021 168 393 2019 186 496 1742 207 613 1651 0 246 1498 136 228 1468 240 20 790 1375 122 383 1277 0 106 1259 89 212 1226 151 430 1198 0 156 1039 99 295 971 65 65 782 0 0 757 72 205 639 0 0 293 80 227 227 58 170 170

Place 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th

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JMR Hampton Downs photo gallery

14 June 2012 - Issue No,6

Kiwi international Jono Lester joins McIntyre for V8SuperTourer enduros John McIntyre has selected the multi-talented, race-winning Jono Lester to be his co-driver in the V8SuperTourers’ three-round endurance race series, which runs from September to November this year. McIntyre, based in Nelson, says the 22-year-old New Zealander has an impressive pedigree of international race successes which sits well alongside his sound knowledge of the three circuits where the endurance races will run. “Jono Lester is the perfect partner for me in the #47 JMR Falcon; he’s a talented Kiwi on the rise,” says McIntyre. “I have watched, as a teenager, he won races, rounds and pole positions in the New Zealand Porsche GT3 Cup and then went onto be fifth fastest in 2010 Porsche Supercup world final at Monza in Italy. This year he has been chosen to drive a 6.2 L V8 Mercedes Benz SLS in the Super Taikyu endurance series in Japan. So for me he clearly has the raw speed we require and now he is getting high level experience in Japan to compliment his speed; it’s an easy choice.” Lester says he is excited by McIntyre’s invitation to join him as the team’s enduro driver. “John runs, in my opinion, the best operation in the championship, on and off the track, and he is totally professional about his motor racing. So to partner John, whom I rate very highly, is such a wonderful opportunity for me,” says Lester, who lives in central Auckland and hails from Manawatu. Lester says the endurance racing experience he’s presently gaining in Japan is proving invaluable. “The six-round Super Taikyu endurance series features three to four hour long races with a field of 45 cars of all speeds and marques, and the key to winning comes just as much down to traffic handling as raw speed,” explains Lester. “All of the FIA GT3-spec cars in the class I contest feature at least one former Super GT 300 and 500 championship winner in their driver lineup, so there are some really competitive benchmarks here.” McIntyre highlights Lester’s fitness as another essential element for the JMR V8SuperTourer endurance drive. “We anticipate the two-driver endurance races will be more like long sprint races, due to the tyres and the balance of the cars,” says McIntyre. “So Jono’s incredibly high level of fitness adds to his credibility, as does the fact he knows all three circuits – Taupo, Pukekohe and Ruapuna – extremely well.”

14 June 2012 - Issue No,6 Taupo Times - 8 June

Otago Daily Times - 4 June

Where weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been seen: Nelson Mail - 2 June

Waikato Times - 7 June

Nelson Mail - 4 June NZ Herald - 6 June

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Where weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been seen - web links TV3 - 1 June Yahoo! Sport - 3 June

Stuff.co.nz - 2 June

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Notepad: Next round:

We now turn our attention to the first of three endurance rounds, starting at Taupo’s Motorsport Park 1-2 September.

Hospitality packages are also available, further ticket and information can be found on www.v8supertourers.co.nz

2012 V8SuperTourer Calendar Sprint Championship Round 1*: 17-19 February – Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, North Waikato Round 2: 7-8 April – Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, Christchurch Round 3*: 27-29 April – Manfeild, Feilding Round 4*: 1-3 June – Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, North Waikato Endurance Championship Round 5:* 1-2 September - Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupo Round 6 *: 26-28 October - 500KM International, Pukekohe Park Raceway Round 7(FINAL): 23-25 November - Powerbuilt Tools Raceway Christchurch * Events which feature the 2012 V8Challenge Cup

See the race action Ondemand at TV3

Or email club@jmr.co.nz www.jmr.co.nz

14 June 2012 - Issue No,6

JMR would like to thank our sponsors: