Booth Battles Hard to be Top Holden in Timaru
Monday 2 February
Media Release
12 January 2009
Booth Battles Hard to be Top Holden in Timaru
Andy Booth, driving the #23 Big Ben Pies Holden, maintained his overall third placed standing in the BNT V8s Championship at Timaru International Raceway over the weekend and was once again the top placed Holden competitor despite being knocked off the track in the final race.
Timaru has been a happy hunting ground for Booth over the last 2 Championships taking race wins in both 2007 and 2008 and the AV8 Motorsport crew were confident of adding to that success in 2009.
After 2 positive test sessions on Friday afternoon and knowing that the Big Ben Commodore always responds well to the new tyres in qualifying the team were quietly confident that they had the potential to match the pace of the dominant Fords. The first run of the 3 session knockout style qualifying backed this confidence when Booth sat at the top of the time sheets for most of the session after his first and only lap of the 20 minute run. After the second top 20 run again Booth needed just one lap to comfortably make it through to the final 10. In the final run however Booth wasn’t able to extract as much from the new tyres as the leading Fords and had to settle for 6th place.
Booth’s comments on qualifying:
“It seemed to be looking really good after the first run but in the top ten session I made a couple of small errors on my first run and no matter what we tried we just couldn’t match Kayne (Scott) and Foggy (Angus Fogg)”
“There was only fractions of a second in it but that seems to be the story at the moment, the top Ford guys just consistently have a couple of tenths up their sleeve”
The first of the weekend’s 3 races got underway late on Saturday afternoon and Booth quickly found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Falcon of Tim Edgell got out of shape in turn 1, Booth went to the inside of Edgell existing turn 2 but was squeezed onto the grass and had to back out. In the confusion Booth was hit from behind half spinning him and allowing Edgell back past along with Eddie Bell and Andrew Anderson. Drawing onto the back of Bell on lap 2 the Big Ben car made a clean pass into turn 5 on lap 3 and then set about hunting down Anderson. Over the balance of the race Booth crept closer and closer to the rear of the commodore of AV8 stable mate Anderson getting close enough to challenge with 3 laps to go, Anderson however switched into defence mode and held Booth out for 6th by just 0.1 of a second at the finish.
Race comments:
“I just had nowhere to go at turn 1 it’s just one of those things, I lost a couple of spots and a whole lot of ground to the leaders, I think the car was strong enough to have clung to the lead group but not to catch them from a 7 or 8 second deficit”
“I caught Anderson a few laps from the end but he knows how to use all the track and there just wasn’t a clean way past so we had to settle for 7th”
Race 2 went much more to plan with the Big Ben Commodore slipping past Anderson on lap one and then dispatching Edgell in the Chesters Ford with an exciting move down the pit straight. Booth then locked his sights onto the back of the Ford of Craig Baird and with the gap opening and closing from 0.5 to 1.5 seconds the pair matched each other lap for lap and mid race began to close the distance to the lead group of Scott, Fogg and McIntyre. Despite the closing gap the order remained the same and Booth took the points for 5th, 3 seconds back from race winner Kayne Scott in a Ford.
Race comments:
“That was a lot better, we’re still lacking a few tenths a lap to the front but we were the quickest of the Holdens by nearly half a second and could match Baird lap for lap so I think we’ve made progress in car speed”
“The opening few laps were pretty exciting, especially the move on Edgell, I had a run on him off the hairpin and onto the pit straight, I’m not sure he knew I was outside him as he had Anderson on the inside to worry about as well but Tim (Edgell) kept it clean and left enough room for everyone”
The final reverse grid race was a real chance for Booth to reclaim some of the points lost to championship leaders Scott and McIntyre in the first 2 encounters and he wasted no time setting bout charging through the field. Slicing though to gain 6 places in the opening lap Booth was off to a great start, the field was then brought together behind the safety car for 3 laps as a result of 2 separate incidents. Once the race got underway again the Big Ben Commodore continued its charge and Booth was soon up to 8th position behind young rookie Michael Bristow in the Tex Onsite Ford. After having several passing attempts aggressively blocked by Bristow Booth had a good run on him down the straight on lap 15. Drawing ahead on the outside into the braking area for turn 4 Booth stayed wide and received a tap from the Falcon driver at the exit, with momentum pulling him ahead on the short dash to turn 5 Booth turned in only for the impetuous Bristow to attempt an inside dive without any hope of success. The Falcon made solid contact with the left rear of Booth Commodore and the Big Ben car was sent spinning at high speed perilously close to the tyre wall. While Booth re-fired the car and rejoined well down the field, Bristow was served with a drive through penalty for causing the incident. Booth recovered to finish in 14th place.
Race comments:
“I had a sterling 1st lap, took a few chances and was served with a healthy dose of luck in the traffic as well; I was having a lot of fun”
“The incident with Bristow was disappointing, he’s inexperienced and has shown it time and time again this season, if he calms down a bit and starts driving with a bit of maturity he could be a regular top ten runner but right now he’s a liability to be near on the track”
“We’re still third in the championship but the last race has almost doubled the points gap to 1st, it’s do-able but we need to find that vital pace to beat the Fords and start pulling points back”
The BNT V8’s now head straight into round 5 in Invercargill this weekend, the AV8 Motorsport crew will prepare the cars in Timaru then head south. The Teretonga track has also been a scene of success for the AV8 team in recent years and its fast flowing nature should suit the Holdens.
Round 3 race report, Christchurch
Thursday 8 January
Media Release
2 December 2008
Booth Maintains 3rd After Strong Weekend in Christchurch
Andy Booth, driving the #23 Big Ben Pies Holden, maintained his overall third placed standing in the BNT V8s Championship with strong 3rd, 4th and 5th place finishes at round 3 held at Christchurch’s Powerbuilt Raceway over the weekend.
Historically something of a bogey track for Booth good results have been thin on the ground at the Christchurch track in recent years. This season, with a brand new car built by Booth’s AV8 Motorsport crew and a new mindset regarding the technical South Island venue, Booth was confident that would all change.
After initially struggling for traction through Friday practice, late in the day a new direction in car set up and some alterations to driving style netted huge gains in track speed. This improvement continued through to Saturday’s qualifying where the Big Ben car sat at the top of the time sheets for most of the 1st of the 3 knockout qualifying sessions only to be piped at the end by Kayne Scott.
Booth’s first and only flying lap in the second top 20 session was good enough for 5th and comfortably through to the final top 10 where again his first lap was his quickest and ultimately placed him 3rd on the grid for race 1.
Saturday afternoon’s race1, held in only slightly cooler conditions than those of qualifying earlier in the day when cabin temperatures exceeded 46 degrees, trialled an altered rolling start procedure with the field restricted to a maximum of 50kph on the approach to the start line in response to the huge accident at Pukekohe 3 weeks prior. Booth got away to a clean start but was almost immediately passed by Craig Baird who held the inside line to the first turn.
Initially tucked onto the back of the lead trio the Big Ben Holden lost some ground over the opening laps as the tyres came up to temperature, Booth was then engaged in an exciting race long battle with defending champion John McIntyre that would see the Ford and Holden swap positions twice before Booth ultimately won out and crossed the line 0.3 of a second ahead of McIntyre.
Booth race comments:
“It’s great to be back on the pace in Christchurch, I really enjoyed that battle with John, the 2 of us seem to have at least one of those each round this season”
“We just lacked a few tenths of a second on those opening 3 or 4 laps and lost ground to the leaders, the car was great towards the end of the race which is promising for tomorrow’s longer races”
“Baird jumped the start by about a week, he was alongside me before the lights had even gone out and ahead before we got to the start line, I figured he’d get penalised for it but it turns out the officials didn’t actually have the necessary tools available to prove jumped starts”
Sunday morning brought cooler temperatures and race 2 brought Booth’s first podium finish at the Christchurch track for longer than he cares to remember. Off the start the top 5 cars all got away fairly cleanly although Kayne Scott was shuffled from 2nd to 5th exiting the 1st turn. When Baird spun race leader Fogg on lap 11 and subsequently served with a drive through penalty Booth emerged in 3rd position and despite pushing as hard as possible and closing the gap to Scott and McIntyre over the closing laps crossed the line 3.6 seconds behind the leader.
Booth race comments:
“The weekend just keeps getting better, I’m rapt to get a podium result here”
“When Foggy got turned by Baird he kept his foot hard up it trying spin the car back around, there was just wall of smoke to drive through and I had no idea where Fogg’s car was, a real Days of Thunder moment!”
“The Big Ben Holden is proving to be very good on longer runs which is a good sign for the reverse grid later on”
Later in the day Booth lined up in 20th position for the traditional reverse grid race 3. After a fairly conservative start he then set about moving forward through the field, taking 5 positions on lap 3 alone. Enjoying strong battles with many competitors on the way through, notably Dale Williams and Andy Knight, Booth was in 5th place by lap 14 and then drew onto the back of an entertaining fight between AV8 team mate Paul Manuell, Kayne Scott and John McIntyre. Despite closing right onto the back of this group Booth ran out of laps to challenge for further positions and crossed the line a mere 0.2 of a second behind Manuell and completing a successful trio of results.
Booth race comments:
“These reverse grids are a real love hate thing they’re either frustrating as hell and brutal on the car or they’re very rewarding and fun.... that one was fun!”
“Everyone was driving really well in that race, the stuff in the midfield was just good clean racing, let’s hope that’s a good sign for the rest of the season”
“I’m just so relieved to have had a strong result here this weekend, for the championship, the crew and all our sponsors, it’s just what we needed. To have been competitive here I now can’t wait to get back to the tracks that we traditionally are strong at”
The BNT V8 Championship now takes a break through December before heading south again in early January for rounds 4 and 5 in Timaru and Invercargill on back to back weekends.
BNT V8s Championship – Provisional points after Round 3
Position, driver, hometown, car, provisional championship points
1, Kayne Scott, Hamilton, Ford Falcon, 533
2, John McIntyre, Nelson, Ford Falcon, 529
3, Andy Booth, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 416
4, Craig Baird, Gold Coast, Ford Falcon, 359
5, Paul Pedersen, Rotorua, Ford Falcon, 331
6, Paul Manuell, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 329
7, Eddie Bell, Christchurch, Ford Falcon, 312
8, Angus Fogg, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 306
9, Dale Williams, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 300
10, Andrew Anderson, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 291
Round 2 race report, Pukekohe
Thursday 8 January
Media Release
10 November 2008
Booth Maintains Third Placing Despite Tough Weekend at Pukekohe
Andy Booth and the Big Ben Pies Commodore managed to hold on to their third place ranking in the BNT V8 Championship at Pukekohe Park Raceway over the weekend despite enduring a wretched run in the incident packed 3 race event.
Always a reliable front runner at his home track, Booth came to Pukekohe with high expectations of improving on the 3rd overall result from Taupo 3 weeks prior. After 2 productive practice sessions on the Friday Booth and the AV8 Motorsport team went into Saturday morning’s qualifying confident that the Big Ben machine was ready to challenge for pole position. Unfortunately a couple of mistakes on quick laps and a mistimed pit stop for new tyres late in the 2nd qualifying session meant Booth missed out on the final top 10 shootout and would have to line up for race 1 in 11th spot.
“I really got it wrong out there” Booth commented after qualifying, “We should have comfortably been through to the final 10 but I ignored a call from the crew to pit as I felt I was on a good lap, I made a mistake and it was slower. By the time I’d come in for tyres and got back out the chequered flag was out and we’d missed the cut. It’s my fault pure and simple”
Booths team mate Paul Manuell in the other AV8 Motorsport Commodore went on to claim pole position showing that the pace was there for an all Holden front row.
Lining up 11th for the rolling start of the first of the weekends 3 races Booth seemed to be immediately making good progress moving up inside the top 10 into 9th by lap 3, then the weekend took another turn in the wrong direction when the race officials deemed Booth guilty of contact with the #27 Falcon of Craig Baird on lap 1 and issued him with a drive through penalty. With the penalty served the Big Ben Commodore rejoined at the rear of the field, benefiting from a safety car intervention that bunched the field up Booth was able to recover to 20th place.
In summing up the race Booth said “That was a far from ideal result, we’d really hoped to recover some of the ground lost in qualifying but the drive through penalty killed all chances of that, it’s bloody disappointing but we’ll move on from it and focus on getting the best points we can from the weekend”
Sunday morning and the field lined up for race 2, within seconds of the green light flashing on the mayhem started when the car of Cam Hardy was turned across the track in front of the following mass of NZV8 cars. The resulting pile up involving up to 13 cars was one of the most dramatic and terrifying seen in NZV8 history with several cars being vaulted into the air and 2 actually coming to rest on the outside of the crash barriers. Fortunately all the drivers emerged unhurt but unfortunately for Booth his 20th place start (as a result of his finish in Saturday’s race) put him right in behind where all the carnage commenced. The Big Ben driver did well to avoid the worst of the mess but ended up punching the Armco on the inside of the track whilst taking evasive action. With the car still drivable Booth limped back to the pits and with racing now delayed for close to 2 hours for repairs to the crash barriers the AV8 Motorsport team worked frantically to straighten the front of the #23 Commodore.
When the race was finally restarted Booth was able to line up off the back of the field with several other hastily repaired cars. With the focus on scoring points Booth drove a strong but conservative race to cross the line in 12th place after passing another 2 cars in one move on the final lap.
Sunday afternoon and the reverse grid race 3 brought with it Booth’s chance to regain some desperately needed points to soften the blow to his championship chances from the first 2 races. The Big Ben Commodore would have lined up 8th on the grid but a rule designed to stop drivers served with time penalties in earlier races benefiting from an elevated starting position in the reverse grid race meant Booth was moved back 6 places to start 14th. With a permanent yellow flag (no passing) due to the makeshift repairs to the crash barriers at turn 1, there was really only one passing opportunity on the track, the hairpin at the end of the long back straight. Despite this Booth made steady progress through to 6th place at the chequered flag enjoying a tight 7 lap battle with John McIntyre to the end but more importantly scoring some vital championship points.
After the race a philosophical Booth said “All in all it’s been a crap weekend but I really enjoyed that last race and the car was good, good enough to have run at the front all weekend if we’d started there. We recovered some of the lost ground and now will get the Big Ben Commodore fixed up to show its real pace in Christchurch in 3 weeks”
Despite the trying weekend at Pukekohe Booth has held on to his 3rd place in the BNT V8 Championship although now trails Championship leader McIntyre by 92 points.
BNT V8s Championship – Provisional Points after Round 2
Position, Driver, Hometown, Car, Total Points
1, John McIntyre, Nelson, Ford Falcon, 345
2, Kayne Scott, Hamilton, Ford Falcon, 332
3, Andy Booth, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 253
4, Paul Manuell, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 239
5, Andrew Anderson, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 238
6, Paul Pedersen, Rotorua, Ford Falcon, 234
7, Michael Bristow, Pukekohe, Ford Falcon, 222
8, Craig Baird, Gold Coast, Ford Falcon, 196
9, Eddie Bell, Christchurch, Ford Falcon, 193
10, Dale Williams, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 189
The BNT V8 Series now moves to round 3 at Christchurch’s Powerbuilt Raceway on November 28-30