Team Kiwi Racing

V8 Supercar Team
Short_name = Team Kiwi Racing

Manufacturer = Ford
Base = Auckland, New Zealand
Principal = David John
Manager = David John
Drivers = 021. Kayne Scott Chris Pither
Chassis = Ford Falcon BF
Debut = 2000
Drivers_champ = 0
Wins = 0
Poles = 1
Last_season = 2007
Last_position = 14th (59 points)

Team Kiwi Racing is a V8 Supercar team that is competing in the Australian V8 Supercar series.

Although the majority of races in the V8 Supercar series are run in Australia, Team Kiwi Racing is the only team to be based in New Zealand. They are based in Hamilton after moving from Auckland.

History

Since their conception, TKR used Holden Commodores as their cars until the end of the 2006 season. TKR are currently a single car team.

TKR has currently had one Pole Position in their 7 seasons. They won it at the 2004 Winton event in very wet conditions. They also had only one podium in the 2005 Shanghai round, claiming 3rd.

During the 2006 Bathurst 1000 endurance race at Mount Panorama, driver Paul Radisich crashed at around 200 km/h head on into a tyre barrier, flipping the car on the roof. The roof had to be cut off to be able to get Radisich out and he was taken to hospital where he was in a serious but stable condition. The car was so badly damaged that it was written off and TKR was unable to race at the Indy 300 round at the Gold Coast. The team leased the chassis that was used by Paul Morris Motorsport earlier in the season as car #39.

Joining Ford

It was announced in August 2006 that Team Kiwi would join Ford to try and boost sales and compete with the popular Holden Commodores. TKR struck a deal with Ford Performance Racing and Prodrive Australia so that TKR could use Jason Bright's 2006 car and technical data. TKR has therefore been grouped with FPR due to their technical partnership, effectively reducing both team available testing days. Radisich was retained as lead driver although missed the season opening Clipsal 500 as his recovery from the Bathurst accident continued. For that round Adam Macrow substituted.

Ford Performance Racing terminated its contract to supply and service the TKR Falcon on May 31, 2007. Paul Radisich said he had terminated his contract with TKR following the team's fallout with Ford Performance Racing (FPR) that ran the car on behalf of TKR. "TKR is in breach of contract and I have therefore terminated my contract with immediate effect." [ [http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1166410 Radisich quits Team Kiwi] ]

After missing the Eastern Creek Raceway, Hidden Valley Raceway and Queensland Raceway rounds, TKR struck a deal with fellow Ford team, Stone Brothers Racing (Owners Ross and Jim Stone are both from New Zealand). New Zealand rookie Shane Van Gisbergen was retained to replace Radisich.

In the 2008 season, the team had Kayne Scott as it's driver until the Winton round on 2nd and 3rd of August. At that race Chris Pither drove, there was speculation that this was due to team turmoil but TKR denied this.

References

External links

* [http://www.teamkiwiracing.co.nz/ Team Kiwi Racing official website]
* [http://www.v8supercar.com.au/news/latestnews/newsdisplay.asp?Ind=&author=&gid=32668183 Team Kiwi aligns with Stone Brothers Racing]