Tough South for V8s Owen

HPM Racing team driver Steve Owen has been dealt a tough introduction to New Zealand’s Christchurch race circuit – the third round of the 2008/09 V8s Championship.

His first visit to the Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, initial front-running pace shown in the 777 HPM Racing Ford was over-shadowed when other teams began dialling in their race setup.

With a different driving style to the Radisich setup car, Melbourne based Owen has been using the precious on-track time to dial in his own optimum package for the 3.33km Ruapuna circuit.
Well inside the top-ten in early qualifying, Owen was later bumped to 13th on the list for this afternoon’s 12-lap race.

“We know plenty of things of what not to do – unfortunately,” said Owen of the frustration at not being able to hold his placing in the 25-strong car field.

Having to contend with other cars rubbing, Owen had the rear bumper on the 777 car tagged mid-way which caused it to droop: “We were making a bit of progress but we had to come in and get the rear bumper attended to – which was a bit of a shame. Our race pace suggests we should be seventh or eighth but we’re starting 19th tomorrow so that will hopefully put us in a better position for the third race,” Owen described of his finishing position in scorching mid-summer style weather.

“You never like to aim your weekend over winning the reverse grid race but that’s the position we’re in now after the race one scenario. The bumper was apparently a bit loose, but was still attached to the car – but not the way the officials wanted to see it so they made us fix it.”

Still not happy with the setup of the car, further variations to suspension geometry is incrementing the car toward a more Owen style: “We are struggling – we are still getting what I want out of the car so it is a learning weekend – just a little frustrating at the moment.”

Evidence of those changes will come from Sunday’s two races; starting with a 16 lap race in the morning and full-reverse grid 20 lap race late in the day.

The HPM Racing team are supported by HPM Legrand, LG Electronics, Ricoh New Zealand, Leaseplan, Olex Cables, South Auckland Motors, Emirates, The RockFM, Custom AutoGlass, Parker Store, Energizer Batteries and Alpinestars.