A1GP
Taupo: Team Great Britain preview
New Zealand beckons A1 Team Great Britain Wednesday 17 January, 2007 - The 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport reaches the halfway marker this weekend in New Zealand with Round 6 hosted at the all-new Taupo Motorsport Park, 19th-21st January. A1 ...
Edited: Jan 18, 2007, 5:11 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
New Zealand beckons A1 Team Great Britain
Wednesday 17 January, 2007 - The 2006-07 A1GP World Cup of Motorsport reaches the halfway marker this weekend in New Zealand with Round 6 hosted at the all-new Taupo Motorsport Park, 19th-21st January. A1 Team Great Britain heads down-under looking to close the gap to current A1GP leaders A1 Team Germany, the distance between the top two nations increasing to 12 points (48-36) following the British team's disappointing Feature race retirement in Indonesia last month, their first of the season.
Taupo offers a clean-slate for the A1GP field with Sunday's races the first to be held on the 2.17-mile, 13-turn track on New Zealand's North Island. Recently homologated to the FIA's Grade 2 standard, the anti-clockwise layout looks set to test the 23 competing nations with A1 Team New Zealand arriving on home soil triumphant following Jonny Reid's sweep of the top step of the podium last time out in Round 5.
Great Britain's challenge down-under will again be spearheaded by former British F3 Champion Robbie Kerr. For the first time this season the British car will be absent from Friday morning's hour-long rookie-only session with Oliver Jarvis unavailable due to his forthcoming commitments in the All-Japan F3 Series. Kerr, with consecutive podium finishes to his credit for A1 Team GBR in Malaysia and Indonesia, is unfazed by the fact that some teams will benefit from the extra track time due to the rookie session.
"For sure everyone wants to get as much track time as possible at a new circuit," Kerr commented. "The bottom line is that in New Zealand we're simply not in a situation to benefit from the rookie session so we'll just have to gain as much as we can from Friday afternoon's official practice and get our heads down ahead of Saturday's qualifying runs."
He continued, "It's always exciting to be running at a completely new circuit and Taupo looks like it should be a lot of fun. The New Zealanders appreciate their motorsport and there should be a fantastic atmosphere this weekend following the home team's success in Indonesia. We had a bit of a mixed bag in Sentul with a Sprint race podium and fastest lap but our Feature race retirement hurt our pursuit of Germany at the top of the Nations Standings. I'll be keen to make up some lost ground in New Zealand and hopefully carry that momentum into the next round in Australia."
A1 Team Great Britain Team Principal John Surtees is aware of the challenges that lie ahead this weekend in New Zealand. "Obviously there's an element of the unknown racing at Taupo," said the former F1 World Champion. "We had originally considered running Oliver (Jarvis) for this event to benefit from his rookie status and the extra track time that would have afforded us but in Robbie and our engineers we have a squad more than capable of overcoming that hurdle and maintaining the competitive edge that's put us firmly in the title fight for the second straight season of A1GP."
Sunday's Sprint race starts at 11am at Taupo (10pm GMT Saturday 20th January) with the Feature starting at 3pm local time (2am GMT Sunday 21st January). Sky Sports 3 will broadcast all the action from New Zealand on Sunday 21st January - please check www.skysports.com for further details.
-credit: team gbr
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Taupo: Team France preview
Next article Brazil race removed from 2006/07 schedule
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Oliver Jarvis
Pfaff Motorsports adds Alexander Rossi to Rolex 24 lineup
IMSA
IMSA
Petit Le Mans Road Atlanta
Pfaff Motorsports adds Alexander Rossi to Rolex 24 lineup
Jarvis “had to think for myself” to seal Portimao win with no radio
WEC
WEC
Portimao
Jarvis “had to think for myself” to seal Portimao win with no radio
United laments "cruel" TV camera issue that cost team Sebring win
WEC
WEC
Sebring
United laments "cruel" TV camera issue that cost team Sebring win
Latest news
Esteban Ocon responds to Haas signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
45 min
Esteban Ocon responds to Haas signing Rafael Camara for F1 2027
Tim Clark wants NASCAR to be better storytellers to counter "brand perception problem"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 1 h
Tim Clark wants NASCAR to be better storytellers to counter "brand perception problem"
Why NASCAR's Zane Smith fine for Carson Hocevar contact was consistent
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
2 h
Why NASCAR's Zane Smith fine for Carson Hocevar contact was consistent
Jimmie Johnson on the NASCAR business world: "It's a war"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 2 h
Jimmie Johnson on the NASCAR business world: "It's a war"
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe