Motorsport: Ford looking for a change of fortune

Jamie Whincup is confident he can break the Holden winning streak in Hamilton. Photo / Getty Images

In the run-up to the second round of the Australian V8 Supercar championship through the streets of the Frankton District in Hamilton, there's a feeling that this could be Ford's year.

Holden have dominated the New Zealand round of the V8 series with 23 wins from 24 starts, with only Marcos Ambrose's win in 2004 the shining light for the blue oval.

The law of averages dictates Ford must win in New Zealand at some stage and this could very well be the year. Although Holden Racing Teams' Garth Tander won all three races here last year, the Fords were the quickest in the run-up to the actual racing.

Before being put into the wall accidentally last year by Todd Kelly, defending V8 Supercar champion Jamie Whincup was quickest in practice and Ford Performance Racing's flying Kiwi Steven Richards put his car on pole.

So far this season, Ford have dominated at both the opening round in Adelaide and the non-points scoring event at the Australia Grand Prix in Melbourne and have won all five races to date.

Defending Hamilton champion Tander has yet to get his campaign firing on all eight cylinders and is looking to this weekend to get back up to title-chasing speed.

"We have great memories of last year's event but last year was last year," said Tander. "We're relatively confident going into this year's event as we have a good base set-up and we can learn from last year as the car was very good here.

"Having said that, the competition is very tough this year. Speed-wise this year the car's very good and this event last year was the turning point for our campaign, so let's hope we can repeat the results."

Whincup is confident he can break the Holden winning streak and feels it's time to readdress the balance sheet. "It's Holden territory over here, isn't it? It's a pretty dismal result for Ford over here in New Zealand so it'd be great to turn that around, that's for sure," quipped Whincup.

He's not the only Ford driver on fire at the moment. Although FPR's Mark Winterbottom had a shaky start at the first round of the series he showed what he's made of with a full house in Melbourne. In the three races he finished second, first and third.

"Last year wasn't the best debut for me but the team did well," said Winterbottom. "It's an important round [Hamilton] for us as we're languishing around the bottom somewhere. We learned a lot from the Grand Prix and the car was really good. We found speed over the entire weekend and we've got some new bits for the weekend."

After a good showing last year, Winterbottom's Kiwi teammate Richards is looking forward to going one better and getting a race win. "Practice wasn't the best for us last year but we found the right window for qualifying and put the car on pole," said Richards. "It only took one little slip to let Garth through for the win. We definitely had the speed to win last year but you really have to be first on the first lap to make sure."

There are five Kiwis chasing a result over the weekend and they've all shown they can be quick around the streets of Hamilton. Shane van Gisbergen was very fast in practice but it didn't come together in any of the races. "I'm really looking forward to having another go," said Van Gisbergen. "I wasn't too bad around there and the track seemed to suit our car and it's great to race in front of your home crowd."

Greg Murphy is hankering to get back to the top of his game and is hoping the Hamilton 400 will bring about a change of fortune. His car was fast right from the off last year but mechanical gremlins put paid to any good results. "No real excuses so far this year. The car was quick out of the box in Adelaide but a few things didn't work out how we planned," said Murphy. "The changes we put in place with the team in the off season are starting to have an effect for the better. But we just need to get some consistency going."

Look to fellow Kiwis Jason Richards and Fabian Coulthard to put in good performances over the weekend, and it would be no surprise to see Jason Richards grab a win.

THE ACTION

The second Hamilton 400 event roars into action today with Supercar practice (12.25am-3.55pm), followed by qualifying tomorrow (11am-12.25am) followed by race one (3.05pm-4.50pm).

Racing carries on in earnest on Sunday with a second qualifying session (1pm-1.20pm) to determine the grid for Sunday's second race (3.05-4.45pm).

There is a full support field featuring the NZV8s, Porsche GT3 Cup cars, the Toyota Racing Series open wheelers and the GT1s.