Australian driver Jason Bargwanna has taken the overall win at the opening round of the BNT V8s at Pukekohe.
Having faced wet and difficult track conditions yesterday; competitors faced hot and dry conditions today.
For Bargwanna, a win yesterday, followed up by a win today and a third placing ensured he now leads the championship from teammate Andre Heimgarter, followed by Nick Ross who sits in third.
Bargwanna’s new teammate Andre Heimgartner won a shortened race three of the weekend.
Taking the championship lead, Bargwanna was buoyed by the performance of his Richards Team Motorsport Toyota Camry and is quietly confident as the championship moves to Taupo next month.
“After last season, we had a few dramas early on which hurt us, but we finished strong,” said Bargwanna.
“Championships are about dealing with all kinds of conditions, weather, mechanical, whatever gets thrown at you, and we demonstrated that this weekend.”
Bargwanna said that the addition of his new teammate Andre Heimgartner has immediately made the Richards team stronger.
“From the first session, you could see Andre’s experience starting to show. He has a done a lot of racing now and can provide a lot of feedback on car set up and direction for the weekend and I think that will help us as the season progresses.”
“The cars are good, and I think as a team we can have a strong season.”
In class two it was a clean sweep for reigning champion, Liam MacDonald of Invercargill.
He won all three races over the weekend, and now leads the class two standings from Rob Wallace, with Chelsea Herbert in third.
“I’m really pleased, it’s the perfect start to our season,” said MacDonald.
“We managed to keep it clean out there, finish all the races and more importantly win them all.”
“Really looking forward to getting to Taupo next month.”
The next round of the BNT V8s is at Taupo December 1-3.