Scott McLaughlin and Volvo Polestar Racing are feeling confident that the Volvo S60 will continue its strong performance at Pukekohe Raceway at the ITM 500 Auckland this weekend. The Kiwi young gun is looking to build on the solid top-six finish at the Gold Coast 600 in front of a fervent home crowd.
"We had a strong run at the Gold Coast, so I'm heading to Pukekohe this year with a lot of confidence. This is my home race and it's always a special event with 250 000 very passionate fans on site. We have had a very good run here over the years and hopefully we can step up the plate and make sure that we are up there in the top fight," said McLaughlin.
Team mate David Wall is looking forward to taking on the New Zealand circuit after separate incidents at the Bathurst 1000 and Gold Coast 600, prevented car number 34 from completing the races.
"This is one of the better tracks on the calendar that we go to and one of my favourites. The car was really good there last year and it is about getting the car to get over the bumps well, providing us with confidence. If we can do that, I think we will be pretty reasonable," said Wall.
The ITM 500 Auckland will see the Championship return to the Super Sprint three race format, with two of 21 lap races on Saturday and the final race of 69 laps on Sunday.
ITM 500 Auckland - V8 Supercars
Circuit: Pukekohe Park Raceway
Length: 2910 m
Lap record (V8SC): 0:56.0781, Greg Murphy, 2005
Schedule
(Times displayed are in local event time)
Friday 6/11
10:25 Practice 1 (60 min)
13:10 Practice 2 (60 min)
Saturday 7/11
11:05 Practice 3 (15 min)
12:05 Qualifying for Race 28 (10 min)
12:30 Qualifying for Race 29 (10 min)
15:00 Race 28 (21 laps)
17:00 Race 29 (21 laps)
Sunday 8/11
10:50 Practice 4 (15 min)
13:20 Qualifying for Race 30 (20 min)
16:00 Race 30 (69 laps)
Championship Standings - Top 5
1 Mark Winterbottom Ford Falcon 2599 points
2 Craig Lowndes Holden Commodore 2341 (-258)
3 David Reynolds Ford Falcon 2281 (-318)
4 Garth Tander Holden Commodore 2141 (-458)
5 Fabian Coulthard Holden Commodore 2096 (-503)
…
11 Scott McLaughlin Volvo S60 1578 (-1021)
24 David Wall Volvo S60 831 (-1768)
TV Schedule
Australia: http://www.v8supercars.com.au/view/tv-schedule
International: http://www.v8supercars.com.au/v8live/schedule
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
Greg Bosnich
Director, PR and Corporate, Volvo Car Australia
T: +61 2 9020 1673
M: +61 419 620 995
E: greg.bosnich@volvocars.com
volvocars.com.au