IN THE COCKPIT: Lee Holdsworth, Hamilton V8s

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IN THE COCKPIT: Lee Holdsworth, Hamilton V8s

Unfortunately after five events, last weekend was the last time we will race at Hamilton, which is really sad.

Lee Holdsworth | Posted April 24, 2012

Lee Holdsworth sits fifth in the V8 Supercars championship, leading the Stone Brothers Racing outfit. (Photo: IRWIN RACING)

Every year the V8 Supercars head across the Tasman (Sea) to New Zealand. I’ve always liked coming to New Zealand, the racing is always good and the fans appreciate their racing.

In the olden days when we used to race at Pukekohe we all loved racing there because it was a great track, you’d stay in Auckland, have a look around, try a restaurant or two, it was quite different to any other event that we went to. Now in Hamilton, which is kind of a small city, they’ve built this brilliant world-class street circuit. We love coming here, the facilities are spot on and the fans get behind it.

I love the Hamilton track, it’s one of the best events on the calendar and I love street circuits. Hamilton ticks all the boxes as far as I’m concerned, it’s exciting, it’s a really challenging track and you need to be 100% committed to race and qualify up the front. The kerbs are probably the most difficult thing about the track, so you need to have a car that can handle them. They are very hard, especially through the first chicane (turn 4) at the back. You can’t ride them because they might damage the car, but if you can get through there cleanly you can make up some good time.

My favourite part of the track is the last sector, which is the section from turn six through to the finish line. You’d describe it as ‘on the edge’ because there are a few right-angle 90 degree type corners. You turn in and miss the wall by a couple of millimetres on the inside and you exit and miss the outside wall by a couple of millimetres, or scrape the mirror! It’s a good flowing part of the circuit and it’s difficult to get right. It’s also the most challenging part of the track and I tend to enjoy the most challenging parts of a circuit.

Unfortunately after five events, last weekend was the last time we will race at Hamilton, which is really sad.

It's always really difficult for spectators to get a good view at a street circuit but Hamilton is one of the best. You can sit at the back of the track and see the cars going through the chicane and there are other areas where fans can get a good view. It’s a good layout for a street circuit, I think every driver would be disappointed that we're not going back there because it was one of the events that we looked forward to and one of the most challenging in the series.

Word is we are headed back to Pukekohe Raceway, which is half way between Auckland and Hamilton. Puky, as we call it, is an exciting track; it's much like Barbagallo Raceway in Perth to be honest. It has big breaking zones, the hairpin, and it is pretty technical, so it would be good to go back.

For me though, I love the street circuits. To see a street circuit go, ideally you want to see it replaced by another street circuit. It would be good to go to Wellington or Auckland and have a street meet.

I came into the event having enjoyed several top five results in Hamilton over the last few years including a third and second place to my now team mate in the Sunday race last year. As I said, I love that type of track, I like getting the most out of the car and the most out of myself, pushing everything to the limit.

We started off a little slowly, we didn’t have the IRWIN Tools Ford right in practice, but we made some big changes on Friday night and it was a lot better by Saturday’s qualifying.

Qualifying was disappointing because I missed the top 10 shootout by one one-hundredth of a second and finished 11th.

This year the IRWIN Ford has struggled a little bit in qualifying but turned into a good race car, so I had high hopes in the race, but there was a lot of bumping and grinding on the first lap and it bent my steering. This turned the car into a bit of a pig, but I salvaged 13th and some good points.

On the Sunday I was able to attack more, the IRWIN Ford was a lot stronger thanks to the changes that we made on the Saturday night.

I qualified 10th but felt I should have started a little higher as I got held up on my fastest lap with about a minute of the session remaining.

I enjoyed the race a lot more than the day before, the team gave me a great pit stop and I improved to fourth place in the first sequence of stops.

I dropped a couple of spots to finish sixth which was disappointing because I had to conserve fuel, but we got a good result, lots of points and I am sitting fifth in the championship.

Till next time.

Lee Holdsworth

Lee Holdsworth is one of the emerging stars of Australian V8 Supercars racing. After six seasons driving for General Motors, he has moved camps and will drive the IRWIN Tools Ford in 2012. Known as one of the most talented drivers down pit lane, most believe he is a V8 Supercars champion in the making. Learn more about Lee and the IRWIN team at www.irwinracing.com.au.

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Lee Holdsworth

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