The 2007 PlaceMakers V8 Supercars was the third round of the 2007 V8 Supercar Championship Series. It was held on the weekend of 20 to 22 April at Pukekohe Park Raceway in New Zealand and consisted of three races held over 400 kilometers. It also served as the first of two international events on the 2007 schedule, the other being the Desert 400 in Bahrain.
The HSV Dealer Team took a 1-2 victory with Rick Kelly winning on overall points ahead of Garth Tander, who had set the pace throughout the weekend. Conditions throughout the weekend were uncharacteristically consistent with no rain and little cloud cover.
This round was the last V8 Supercar event to be held at Pukekohe until 2013. From 2008 to 2012, the event was moved to a street race in Hamilton.
Background After years of dissatisfaction with the track facilities, and several attempts at finding alternative venues, it was confirmed that 2007 would be the last V8 Supercar event to be held at Pukekohe Park Raceway. Originally, 2005 was mooted to be the final round, with the city of Auckland initially confirmed to host a street race in and around Victoria Park. However, the project fell through, and focus shifted toward a rejuvenated Wellington street race. But, like the Auckland project, the proposed street track in the nations capital was found to be untenable. It was subsequently confirmed that the championship would return to Pukekohe for a further two years before eventually moving to Hamilton for 2008.
The round served as Cameron McConville's 100th start in the V8 Supercar Championship, and ran the number 100 on his car to mark this achievement.
The six in-car cameras in this round were Greg Murphy, Jason Bright, Rick Kelly, Craig Lowndes, Max Wilson and Paul Dumbrell. Race Report Qualifying Part 1 For the second round in a row, only 30 cars made the grid for qualifying after Jack Perkins from Jack Daniels Racing crashed at approximately 160 km/h into the barrier, on the main straight. The first part of qualifying began with Rick Kelly quickest, however a number of cars including Shane Price, Jason Richards and Steven Richards all ran wide at the hairpin at turn 5. Brad Jones also crashed into the tyre barriers at the hairpin after brake failure, which caused the session to be red flagged. The session was restarted with Garth Tander taking provisional pole from his teammate Rick Kelly and Todd Kelly.
Part 2 Once again, a number of drivers including Jamie Whincup, James Courtney and both Jim Beam Racing cars, ran wide at the hairpin, whilst trying to set quick laps which Craig Lowndes was quickest early on. Paul Dumbrell also crashed at turn 4, which caused the second red flag of qualifying. At the end of part 2, James Courtney lead, from Lowndes and Skaife.
Part 3 The third part of qualifying began with Whincup running wide at turn 4, and touched the tyre barriers. However he did not suffer any major damage and was able to continue. The pole position holder changed a number of times with Skaife, Whincup and Steven Richards among the drivers who temporarily held pole. Once qualifying finished, Mark Winterbottom had the quickest lap and took pole, from Garth Tander and team-mate Steven Richards in third.
Pos No Name Team Vehicle Time 1 5 Mark Winterbottom Ford Performance Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:55.6704 2 16 Garth Tander HSV Dealer Team Holden Commodore (VE) 0:55.7472 3 6 Steven Richards Ford Performance Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:55.7829 4 1 Rick Kelly HSV Dealer Team Holden Commodore (VE) 0:55.8038 5 88 Jamie Whincup Triple Eight Race Engineering Ford Falcon (BF) 0:55.8338 6 2 Mark Skaife Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore (VE) 0:55.8914 7 4 James Courtney Stone Brothers Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:55.9017 8 888 Craig Lowndes Triple Eight Race Engineering Ford Falcon (BF) 0:55.9271 9 9 Russell Ingall Stone Brothers Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:56.0126 10 22 Todd Kelly Holden Racing Team Holden Commodore (VE) 0:56.0329 11 3 Jason Richards Tasman Motorsport Holden Commodore (VE) 0:56.1935 12 51 Greg Murphy Tasman Motorsport Holden Commodore (VE) 0:56.2010 13 18 Will Davison Dick Johnson Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:56.2116 14 17 Steven Johnson Dick Johnson Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:56.2429 15 021 Paul Radisich Team Kiwi Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:56.2550 16 55 Steve Owen Rod Nash Racing Holden Commodore (VZ) 0:56.4472 17 111 John Bowe Paul Cruickshank Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:56.4827 18 25 Jason Bright Britek Motorsport Ford Falcon (BF) 0:56.4952 19 33 Lee Holdsworth Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden Commodore (VE) 0:56.5121 20 20 Paul Dumbrell Paul Weel Racing Holden Commodore (VE) 0:56.5823 21 100 Cameron McConville Paul Weel Racing Holden Commodore (VE) 0:56.7534 22 34 Dean Canto Garry Rogers Motorsport Holden Commodore (VE) 0:56.7572 23 8 Max Wilson WPS Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:56.8609 24 39 Fabian Coulthard Paul Morris Motorsport Holden Commodore (VZ) 0:56.8658 25 12 Andrew Jones Brad Jones Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:56.9623 26 10 Jason Bargwanna WPS Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:57.0628 27 7 Shane Price Perkins Engineering Holden Commodore (VE) 0:57.1221 28 14 Brad Jones Brad Jones Racing Ford Falcon (BF) 0:57.5039 29 26 Alan Gurr Britek Motorsport Ford Falcon (BF) 0:57.6683 30 67 Paul Morris Paul Morris Motorsport Holden Commodore (VE) 0:57.8552 - 11 Jack Perkins Perkins Engineering Holden Commodore (VE) no time Sources:
Race 1 Tander got off the line and beat Mark Winterbottom into the first corner. Meanwhile, Dean Canto ran wide at the first corner and into the gravel trap, causing the safety car to come out at the end of the first lap. Brad Jones' car began heaving smoke barely two laps into the race. He would eventually retire from the race due to a hydraulic problem. The race proved tricky for Britek Motorsport, with both cars in the pits on lap 11 with Jason Bright's car cutting out, which was the same problem that caused the accident in Perth and Alan Gurr's car suffering from a sticky throttle.
Tander lost the lead to Winterbottom after both had completed their compulsory pitstops, and barely withheld a challenge from Steven Richards after exiting the pits. Both cars almost speared off the circuit on lap 20; locking tyres as the battled raged. Once the tyres came up to temperature, Tander pulled away from Richards and set off after Winterbottom. A slow pitstop from Mark Skaife proved costly and dropped last years round winner tumbling down the order. Andrew Jones completed a dicey move on Jason Bargwanna at the hairpin which, remarkably, resulted in no damage for either car. Craig Lowndes' day was less than optimal; outbraking himself at the hairpin and dropping himself out of the top ten. Steven Richards struggled to arrest his career in the braking areas and eventually found himself losing positions to Rick Kelly and Jamie Whincup. Paul Morris meanwhile would retire from the race with engine issues.
With a handful of laps to go, Tander began to apply pressure to Winterbottom. On lap 38, Tander finally scythed through at the hairpin to take the lead, much to the approval of the large Holden fan contingent in the crowd. The top five would remain unchanged on the run to the flag, with Tander taking his second win at Pukekohe in two years. Pos No Name Team Laps Time/Retired Grid Points 1 16 Garth Tander HSV Dealer Team 43 43min 46.0087sec 2 24 2 5 Mark Winterbottom Ford Performance Racing 43 + 1.233 1 20 3 1 Rick Kelly HSV Dealer Team 43 + 2.614 4 17 4 88 Jamie Whincup Triple Eight Race Engineering 43 + 5.245 5 15 5 6 Steven Richards Ford Performance Racing 43 + 6.807 3 13 6 22 Todd Kelly Holden Racing Team 43 + 10.534 10 12 7 3 Jason Richards Tasman Motorsport 43 + 16.298 11 11 8 9 Russell Ingall Stone Brothers Racing 43 + 17.671 9 10 9 4 James Courtney Stone Brothers Racing 43 + 18.053 7 9 10 2 Mark Skaife Holden Racing Team 43 + 25.271 6 8 11 18 Will Davison Dick Johnson Racing 43 + 26.005 13 6 12 51 Greg Murphy Tasman Motorsport 43 + 26.328 12 5 13 17 Steven Johnson Dick Johnson Racing 43 + 27.219 14 4 14 888 Craig Lowndes Triple Eight Race Engineering 43 + 28.342 8 3 15 021 Paul Radisich Team Kiwi Racing 43 + 28.342 15 2 16 8 Max Wilson WPS Racing 43 + 35.765 23 17 33 Lee Holdsworth Garry Rogers Motorsport 43 + 37.978 19 18 100 Cameron McConville Paul Weel Racing 43 + 43.720 21 19 55 Steve Owen Rod Nash Racing 43 + 51.060 16 20 10 Jason Bargwanna WPS Racing 43 + 51.179 26 21 111 John Bowe Paul Cruickshank Racing 43 + 55.733 17 22 39 Fabian Coulthard Paul Morris Motorsport 43 + 55.873 24 23 20 Paul Dumbrell Paul Weel Racing 43 + 56.946 20 24 7 Shane Price Perkins Engineering 42 + 1 lap 27 25 34 Dean Canto Garry Rogers Motorsport 40 + 3 laps 22 26 12 Andrew Jones Brad Jones Racing 37 + 6 laps 28 Ret 67 Paul Morris Paul Morris Motorsport 31 Engine 25 Ret 26 Alan Gurr Britek Motorsport 21 Throttle 29 Ret 14 Brad Jones Brad Jones Racing 20 Hydraulics 28 Ret 25 Jason Bright Britek Motorsport 11 Electrical 18 DNS 11 Jack Perkins Perkins Engineering Did Not Start Fastest lap: Rick Kelly (HSV Dealer Team), 0:56.4068 Sources:
Race 2 Even before the race had begun, there were problems for Greg Murphy, who had a stuck throttle in the installation laps pre-race. Andrew Jones would start from the pit lane and would be forced to contest the race without power steering.
When the race started, Steven Richards made contact with Todd Kelly and spun off into the wall at turn three. However, he was able to continue, though would suffer another excursion at the hairpin just laps later. Still on the opening lap, Whincup overtook Tander for the race lead, although Tander retook said position on the next lap. Winterbottom followed suit just a couple laps later. Steven Richards' day went from bad to worse after being spun by Morris at the hairpin. Murphy ran wide at the same point of the track and lost five positions. Much like the first race, Winterbottom was able to overtake Tander in the compulsory pitstop cycle. However, he had a major brake lock-up into the hairpin, destroying his front-left tyre and requiring a second pitstop. On lap 28, Jason Richards crashed at the hairpin owing to front-left suspension failure, which led to the first safety car period. Skaife was issued a bad sportsmanship flag for blocking. The second safety car was deployed on lap 37, when Bargwanna ran wide coming onto the front straight and crashed into the safety fence.
When the safety car came back in, it became a sprint to the finish. Tander was never under much pressure and took the win from Whincup. The Kelly brothers squabbled over third, with Rick emerging victorious in that battle.