Release 15/3/2009

ANOTHER POSITIVE ROUND FOR HEPBURN    

 

John Hepburn ended his first full season in the BNT V8s Championship in the top twenty of the point standings when the series concluded at Pukekohe Park Raceway south of Auckland this weekend.

 

The Timaru driver had been a much happier man after the penultimate round at Manfeild two weeks ago when, after suffering major problems throughout the series, the team started to make headway. After that round Hepburn, a former motorcycling and Super Truck racing champion, said the team had made real gains in the handling area and now just needed more horsepower. 

 

For Pukekohe there was a newly leased engine and an arrangement to share data with fellow Holden driver John Penny. 

 

Hepburn showed the potential of the new package on Saturday when he drove the John Hepburn Racing Commodore from twenty-first on the grid to fourteenth in the 12 lap contest. That result improved still further when Angus Fogg was excluded from the race, promoting the South Canterbury driver to thirteenth. The result also saw John reach eighteenth position in the championship point standings.

 

The following morning Hepburn was again showing well early in the race but a broken driveshaft after completing eleven of the sixteen laps ended his race and dropped him down the order in the championship standings.

 

The car was back on track for the final race of the championship later in the day and from the front row of the grid John again showed good pace to run at the front of the field. He ended his championship on a high as he reeled off his best lap time of the round in that final race. 

 

The championship ended on a real positive for Hepburn. "The new engine was better than the one we had at the last round at Manfeild but not as good as the one we had prior to that. It had some welly out of corners but was down on power on the straights, costing about .6 of a second per lap. The best thing is the data we can access for the rest of the season by working with John Penny. We are heading in the right direction. We can play with them now," he said   

 

The next mission for Hepburn will be the Hamilton Street Race, a non championship Trophy Race supporting the Australian V8 Supercar Championship round from 17-19 April .

 

John Hepburn's campaign in the BNT V8s Championship is supported by Auto Align, Timaru Signs & Graphix, Blastcraft, Petrie Mayman Clark, Robinsons Auto Dismantlers, Drummond & Etheridge, Timaru Metal Recyclers, Ashley Electronics, Paul Smith Earthmoving, Auto Gas and Crash Repairs.