Motorsport: The heat goes on Team Kiwi

Survival will be the focus for Team Kiwi Racing in the heat of Darwin for the sixth round of the Australian V8 Supercars at the weekend.

Fresh from their first podium placing from the historic last round in Shanghai, the team's main driver, two-time world touring car champion Paul Radisich, is focusing on getting through the three-race meeting unscathed.

The 1.1km main straight at Hidden Valley won't favour the under-powered TKR Holden, with the first of the new Alan Draper-prepared engines not expected to arrive until later this month.

"We are down on horsepower and that could get found out with this really long straight in Darwin. There's nowhere for us to hide," Radisich said.

"Having said that, we went to China with the same misapprehensions and came out with an amazing result."

The rest of the 2.9km track is tight, twisty and fast, which will suit Team Kiwi.

"The TKR crew and I are really working well together and we are able to tune the car and it's handling superbly. It will work well around the rest of the circuit as it did in China," Radisich said.

Team Kiwi, the only New Zealand-based team competing in the V8 Supercar championship, have moved back to eighth overall and are the leading single car team.

Radisich said the car came back unscathed from the Shanghai round, although the team have stripped it apart and rebuilt for the Darwin round, the sixth of 13 in the championship.

- NZPA