Motorsport: Starters for 10: the Hamilton 400

Grid girls are one of the crowd favourites at the V8 Supercars. Photo / Getty Images

From the grid girls to the bold young stars, there is much spice in the Hamilton circuit's second year.

1. Who's most likely to win?

Most people will be picking Jamie Whincup to triumph this weekend, as he's definitely on a roll. Whincup is the defending Australian V8 Supercar champion and won the two races at the opening round in Adelaide.

However, Garth Tander heads to Hamilton for the second time, undefeated, on one of the newest circuits in the V8 championship and he drives a Holden.

Driving a Holden helps on this side of the Ditch. The General's Australian-made and manufactured car has won 23 of the 24 races held in New Zealand with the only hiccup being Marcos Ambrose's one-race win for Ford in 2004. Tander hasn't had the best of starts to the 2009 championship, but the 2007 V8 Supercar title-holder is a proven winner and will head to Hamilton with his tail feathers up, having previously destroyed the opposition around Frankton.

2. Who will be first Kiwi home?

There's a fair chance Jason Richards will not only be the first Kiwi home but he might just win it.

He showed bursts of scintillating speed at Hamilton last year but mechanical problems and numerous drive-through penalties put paid to any chance of a good finish.

Roberts is in a good car this season and at both the opening round in Adelaide and the non-point-scoring round in Melbourne, he finished consistently in the top five.

He likes street circuits and in particular Hamilton and has a confident air about him.

He should be aware of fellow Kiwis Shane van Gisbergen and Fabian Coulthard, also in a new car, and don't rule out Greg Murphy. If the stars are all aligned correctly Murph will pound everyone into submission and he's due for a big win soon.

3. Which driver is most likely to cause upset?

Holden Racing Team's Will Davison is in the groove at the start of the 2009 V8 Supercar season and is nicely ensconced in second place on the table. He's the driver pushing series leader Jamie Whincup hard at the moment, and if his current form continues, he might just snatch a win from under the noses of both Tander and the in-form Whincup.

Davison was the talking point at the opening round of the 2009 series in Adelaide during his debut for the HRT team. He almost put the car on pole, and after a poor start in race one, stormed through the field to finish third. He picked up a second in race two to finish second overall for the weekend.

After finishing fifth in the title race last year with Jim Beam Racing, Davison now has the tools to do some serious damage in the championship.

4. Who's the young gun?

This mantle falls to 19-year-old Kiwi Shane van Gisbergen, now in his second year racing in the main game of the V8s. Ross and Jimmy Stone are no mugs at SBR when it comes to spotting talent, having already won three V8 Supercar titles with Marcus Ambrose in 2003 and 04 and Russell Ingall in 2005. They see Van Gisbergen as the man to bring them back to championship-winning ways. Lying in seventh on the table, he continues to improve and as his racecraft gets better he'll soon be consistently mixing it with the best up at the front of the field.

Last year in Hamilton Van Gisbergen was fast and once he was done avoiding incidents and accidents in the first two races, finished a respectable 10th in race three on a circuit that was new to all the drivers.

5. What's an Aussie doing in Team Kiwi Racing?

Team Kiwi Racing will compete with a non-Kiwi driver in its home V8 Supercar event in New Zealand for the first time in its short but interesting history.

Ever since the V8 series first visited Pukekohe in 2001, a Kiwi has always been in the driver's seat of the black car.

However, this year it's an Aussie, Dean Fiore, who'll be driving the Paul Morris Motorsport-prepared Holden.

TKR's best race result on home soil was Jason Richards' fourth place in race one at the 2001 event.

Paul Radisich qualified the car highest in 2005 when he put it 14th on the grid and went on to finish fifth overall.

You have to hand it to TKR and David John, although the team seems to lurch from one disaster to another, both on and off the track, they always turn up - well, almost always.

Chances of them doing any good?

Let's just say it'll be good if they finish both races in one piece, especially after the drama of the engine bay fire they had last year when Kayne Scott was driving.

6. How will Murph go?

Greg Murphy was the king of Pukekohe when the big V8s turned up in New Zealand - in the first few years he was untouchable, winning four of the first five rounds held on his home turf. From 2006 things have taken a bit of a turn for the worst.

Lately, he's been average in his home round and in the championship as a whole. After a clean out at Tasman Motorsport during the off-season and the introduction of some new personnel, Murph is in a much better frame of mind.

He's never lost his hunger for more wins and doesn't want to leave the sport, having won bugger-all of late. The car was quick out of the box last year but didn't have the legs to finish. This year, though, the speed remains and if the car lasts, Murph will definitely be there or there about.

7. What's new?

This season sees a raft of changes for the V8 championship, chief among them the change in qualifying for grid positions. Previously grid spots were determined for both races during Saturday's qualifying sessions.

It was not a popular system with either the fans or the drivers: if you started last on the grid in race one - but went on to finish in the top five - you got chucked back down to the rear of the grid for race two.

For once, common sense has risen to the fore, and there's a separate qualifying session for both races. Saturday qualifying features the regular three-leg format with a top-10 shootout to finish the session. The fans get to see an all-in 20-minute session on Sunday that will determine the grid for Sunday's 200km race. There is no change in tyre allocation for the weekend.

8. Who are the new kids on the block?

Last year, no V8 driver had seen - let alone raced around - the newest circuit in the Supercar calendar. You'd be forgiven for thinking there'd only be one or two this year who might find it all a bit new - but not so. There are a whopping seven drivers who'll be cutting their teeth around the mean streets of Hamilton in the big taxis.

They are Jason Bargwanna (Sprint Gas Racing), Alex Davison (IRWIN Racing), Jack Perkins (Dodo Racing), Dale Wood (Hi-Tec Oils Racing), Dean Fiore (Team Kiwi Racing), David Reynolds (Bundaberg Red Racing) and Tim Slade (Supercheap Auto Racing).

Bargwanna, Reynolds and Perkins have some advantage as they competed in other categories last year - Bargwanna in a Toyota Racing Series open wheeler, Reynolds in a Porsche GT3 Cup car and Perkins drove a local NZ V8 car.

9. Where's the eye candy?

Always a difficult one this - and I'm not talking about the drivers. They all look pretty much the same with race suits and helmets on, wedged into a race seat hooked up to various tubes and things.

It's the grid girls we're talking about here. No motor racing event is complete without a number of heavenly creatures sashaying around, wearing not a lot, handing out sponsor's freebies, or standing on the grid holding various flags and umbrellas.

These girls add visual spice to what are inherently ugly cars. But spare a thought for them when it's pouring with rain and there's a howling gale trying to remove what little clothes they had on to start with. Although, they do add that extra oomph to a sport that's mostly about noise, dirt, dust, and the smell of burnt oil.

10. What's the fastest way round?

1.) First Turn: Just hang in there and hope you're not pushed into the wall.

2.) Holden Hairpin: Opens up on the exit but it'll be busy going in.

3.) Sweeper: The bump's gone, but going around a roundabout the wrong way does strange things to your head. Don't get pushed wide as there's not a lot of track out there.

4.) Chicane: Fourth apex removed, so no need to wreck the car's suspension running into third apex to carry speed.

5.) Lion Red Corner: Chance to pass someone if they've made a cock-up at the chicane, as those that got it right will be carrying more speed.

6.) ITM Corner: Kink has gone on entry, so possibly another passing chance.

7.) Porter Kink: Don't want to mess up through here, as drivers will be very close to the wall.

8.) Big Pond Corner: Entry speed important, as there's no room on exit.

9.) Final Turn: Lots of choices on exit to either get on the gas (risking wheel spin) or take the tight line and avoid bumps.

10.) Main Straight: Go flat out.