KEY POINTS:
Ford ended Holden's long domination of the Bathurst 1000 last month. Now fans of the blue oval are looking for overdue success in the New Zealand V8 championship.
For the past three seasons Holden drivers have won the country's premier racing class despite regulations designed to promote parity between the two marques.
Aucklander Andy Booth won in 2004 and 2005 and last season Hamilton's Kayne Scott won after a series of controversies. The last Ford champion was South Aucklander Mark Pedersen, who won his third title in 2003 after previous successes in 1995 and 2000.
Scott, Booth and Pedersen will be among the 29 contenders starting the 2006-7 season at Pukekohe this weekend. Sixteen of the drivers will have Fords and 13 Holdens.
Ironically, last season, while Scott had an edge in top speed, the Fords were judged to have more torque. For this season the compression ratio has been reduced in the Ford engines to reinforce parity.
Garry Pedersen, who has been building a new Ford Falcon for son Mark, is also a member of the advisory commission that oversees the technical aspects of the class. He was in favour of the compression change but doesn't believe it will disadvantage the Fords. "It was done for parity reasons and to make the engines efficient with unleaded fuel. We lost eight horsepower with the change but, by spending a lot of dough with the engine builders, we've got that back. We've also got the brakes a bit nearer to the Holden.
"The Holden has always been a better-balanced car because of the weight placement but you don't hear them talking about that."
Pedersen believes late arrival of parts has put some other Ford contenders at a disadvantage because they have had less testing time on the harder compound tyres. Still, you can expect the Fords of John McIntyre, Mark and Paul Pedersen, Dean Perkins, David Besnard and Angus Fogg to be disputing the lead with the Holdens of Scott, Booth and Paul Manuell.
