Fogg's magic extends V8s championship lead

Birkenhead’s Angus Fogg has extended his lead in the BNT V8s championship after the series second round held at Christchurch’s Powerbuilt Tools Raceway. The 44-year-old race car engineer won two races and placed second in the third.

Winning the mid-December weekend, Fogg extends his points’ advantage to 22 in the six round title battle.

The first time the Radio Sport Falcon has been on the track since the series opener in early November, Fogg was the yard stick for the rest of the field who never matched his pace during the weekend. Setting fastest time in Saturday qualifying, Fogg marched to an 8.9 second lead after the 12-lap afternoon race.

Sitting out the Sunday morning warm-up session further outfoxed Fogg’s opposition, opting instead to save his car for the top-ten reverse grid race. Starting from the rear, Fogg had a massive and lucky moment while duelling with Australian Jason Bargwanna in the early half of the race. Recovering, he again had the entire field ahead and managed to scalp all but the race winner by the time the chequered flag came out after the 12-laps.

That put him to the front for the final 20-lap race, with a slick pit-stop by his team further helping to elevate the racer to a 13second lead.

“The car is a jet; I’m thrilled with its performance since coming back from Moselle Panel and Paint after our Pukekohe shunt. It’s never measured up so square in its life so I had a strong feeling we had something special – which was particularly important for a track like this where there is so much more in the technical setup of the car,” said Fogg.

“They’ve done something magic and their work has paid off, making it so much easier to engineer.

“Although the Sunday morning race was messy. The car wasn’t right for the first part so we were floundering around at the back for a while. Then Bargs (Jason Bargwanna) turned us round, which I reckon was really a racing incident, so I had to get stuck in to it or get left behind.

“As the race went on the car came right and it was a jet again. So we managed to pick them off and second was a pretty good recovery all things considered.

“The highlight? Dicing with others in that second race. Guys like Nick Ross never give up, so it ends up being a good battle for position.

Fogg and his Radio Sport Racing team are now focusing on the New Year when the series heads to Invercargill’s Teretonga raceway 14-15 January 2012.

“We’ve decided to take the car back home; just so we can go through it and be 100% sure it’s ready for the two back to back rounds in the New Year.”

The second weekend is held at Levels Raceway near Timaru: 21-22 January 2012.