McLaughlin and Bargwanna Top Practice Sheets in NZV8   29 Nov 2014

McLaughlin and Bargwanna Top Practice Sheets in NZV8 Touring Cars

Lower Hutt driver James McLaughlin and Australia's Jason Bargwanna demostrated their intentions today at Pukekohe Park Raceway when setting the fastest times in practice in the NZV8 Touring Cars TL and TLX categories respectively.

McLaughlin came to Pukekohe looking for a round win with unashamed fashion in the face of veteran drivers Craig Baird and Kevin WIlliams who sit above him on the points table after the opening round at Hampton Downs a few weeks ago.

McLaughlin was a top performer in the series last season narrowly missing out on the title with his best lap time today being 1.11.201.

Bargwanna on the other hand holds the lead in the TLX category after round one and looks as though he will be strong again at Pukekohe as he takes on defending champion Nick Ross who set the second fastest time today.

Bargwanna's best time was 1.06.528.

In the NZV8 Touring Cars TL category there will be all to play for with McLaughlin taking out this round at this time last year with two race wins.

Baird and WIlliams will be strong competitors as well as fellow Wellingtonian Brock Cooley who was close on the heels of McLaughlin with a best lap of 1.11.285. Cooley is the odd one out of this pack driving a Ford Falcon whereas the others are in Holdens.

Toyota Camry TLX driver Bargwanna won this round last year in his class with two wins to Cambridge driver Nick Ross' one race win but it was Ross who won the round the last time the NZV8 Touring Cars appeared at Pukekohe in April this year where he took the title.

The battles between these two are without exception fierce and there will be more action in the TLX field with Hamilton drivers Lance Hughes and Ian Booth going at it hammer and tongs as they did at Hampton Downs which at one point resulted in high speed contact entering turn one at pace.

Bargwanna has a new team mate for this round and the remainder of the series in Australian Scott Taylor.

Taylor fresh from the Australian Carrera Cup is expected to be a handy team mate to 'Bargs' looking for race wins himself while aiding him against Ross and his brand new Nissan Altima which has already proven to be very quick.

NZV8 Touring Cars chairman Ian Booth is looking forward to this weekend and a grand upcoming season. As the defending TL class champion, this season he has moved into the TLX category and into Concept Motorsport's championship winning Holden Commodore TLX.

"This weekend should be action packed in both the TLX and TL classes. The Aussie versus New Zealand element in the TLX class will no doubt cause some form of door rubbing I’m sure. I don’t know a lot about Scott Taylor but from what I’ve read about him he looks like he’s got a lot of race miles behind him." said Mr Booth.

"Barg’s and Nick will provide full on action as per every time they race against each other and no doubt swap some paint at some stage."

"After the last round at the Hampton Downs track both Lance and myself seem to be similar in speed so I’m not going to hang back at Pukekohe. I managed two race wins at Pukekohe last season so this track seems to suit my style of driving." he said.

Action gets underway Saturday at 11.35am with qualifying followed by race one at 3.30pm and the continues with further V8 powered excitement on Sunday with race two at 11.45am and race three at 4.10pm.

ENDS

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