Big Ben Pies Holden Commodore driver Andy Booth says he had only one big problem in Race 2 of the NZ V8s at Timaru today – the pace of John McIntyre’s BP Ultimate Ford Falcon.
“I didn’t have an answer for John. His car was fast.”
Booth says he tried hard to stay with McIntyre for the first couple of laps. “But I was working the tyres too hard. I didn’t have the set-up quite right.
“We used our settings from the dry qualifying session. They were okay for a couple of laps, but we overheated the rear tyres and I was losing ground out of the hairpin and other corners.”
Booth switched his focus to keeping Paul Radisich and Angus Fogg (both Falcons) behind him.
“Paul was catching me in the middle of the race. I tried to back him up a little bit so that Angus would get at him.”
It worked and Booth says the breathing space he gained “allowed me to draw away again.”
Despite finishing second behind McIntyre in Race 2, Booth says it’s good to at last be having a good weekend: he put the Big Ben car on pole and won yesterday’s wet race.
“It’s good, especially with a new sponsor on the car.”
Booth says he was happy with the Commodore’s Race 2 speed. But compared with McIntyre’s Falcon, “we were just half a second a lap too slow.
“We’re making some changes for the reverse grid race (later this afternoon), so hopefully we’ll get a good result.”
