Clarkie’s notepad: Taupo

By Andrew Clarke

Date posted: 12 April 2025

Aside from the shock at the increase in hotel prices – up by a minimum of 30% on last year – it is great to be back in Tow-Paw. It is a place where the earth appears to be living on the edge, with steam pouring out of natural vents in the ground like that from a car that has just gone headfirst into the wall.

But we are not here for a geology lesson; we’re here for the big engineering stories, like what sort of ‘thing’ the teams hang in the doorway of their shipping container. Some were like the sheets we used in windows when we were poor university students, while others have delicate strips cut into a sign-written sheet…

The door on the shipping containers showed the best of Supercars’ engineering skills. PremiAir had full-blown sliding doors fitted, and Triple Eight had a zip, while MSR used the old-school cut strips footy banner method. Photos: Clarke

Again, you’re not interested?

Chev on the run

Chevrolet’s on-again, off-again media conference to announce its Homologation Team was an interesting side play to the action on the track. As expected, Team 18 got the nod, and that was locked away ages ago, so why the delays?

Was it that Brad Jones Racing and PremiAir were listed in the media release even though both teams confirmed our story from earlier in the week that both were seriously exploring life elsewhere – BJR with Toyota, PremiAir with Ford.

The real answer was a puncture on the way from Auckland and no breaks in the schedule.

Brad Jones is ‘perfectly’ clear

Brad Jones stared down the barrel and delivered a blunt statement debunking stories he was going to drop to two cars in 2026.

After starting with a ‘let me be perfectly clear’, so you understand, “I am just looking at what is available, and at some point in the not-too-distant future I will make a decision.

“But right now, we are just focused on the day-to-day.

“I will be running four cars no matter what we are doing.

“I have a model that works really well with four cars, and if I cut back to two, I will have to get rid of half of my people, and I do not want to do that.

“It won’t make us any better or worse, it will just cut the business in half.

“You go through all that pain of growing the team; it is punishing at the time, but once you get over the hump, you have enough people, infrastructure and sponsorship to run the cars properly. It does not matter how many cars you have.”

Fast Wood wants 4 Kiwi rounds

Ryan Wood, the leaned-down for 2025 fighting machine at Walkinshaw Andretti United, topped the times for the day. The young Kiwi set a time of 1m25.9778s to head Brodie Kostecki and Thomas Randle before telling the world he wants four rounds in New Zealand.

On that score, it appears, as reported in Auto Action weeks ago, that Ruapuna Motorsport Park, AKA Euromarque Motorsport Park, in Christchurch has edged its way in front of Highlands Motorsport Park as the possible host for a second New Zealand round in 2026.

Ever since the since the success of last year’s Taupo round, which doesn’t appear set to be emulated in terms of crowds, there has been a push for a second round, and Tony Quinn who owns three tracks in NZ via his foundation said it needed to be on South Island.

He was hoping for Highlands, but Ruapuna is coming hard. There will be some work required, but maybe the fact it is inside a major for New Zealand population centre boosts some of the attraction for Supercars as the price gouging in Taupo continues to rise.

Pos	Driver	Time	Gap
1	Ryan Wood	1:25.9778
2	Brodie Kostecki	1:26.0213	0:00.0435
3	Thomas Randle	1:26.0616	0:00.0838
4	Andre Heimgartner	1:26.0715	0:00.0937
5	Anton De Pasquale	1:26.1987	0:00.2209
6	Chaz Mostert	1:26.2583	0:00.2805
7	Cameron Hill	1:26.3034	0:00.3256
8	Bryce Fullwood	1:26.3538	0:00.3760
9	William Brown	1:26.4173	0:00.4395
10	Cameron Waters	1:26.4798	0:00.5020

Heimgartner Topped Practice 1

By the time the second session is done for the day, it is easy to forget that there was an earlier session unless a driver stuffed a car into a fence or something similar. There was none of that, so it could have just drifted away as though nothing happened between 11.45 and 12.15…

So, for the record. Heaps of cars changed shock absorbers and springs as they came to grips with the bumpier than Albert Park surface at Taupo.

Last year’s first race winner, Andre Heimgartner, topped the session from Anton De Pasquale, both in Camaros, as the big guns on that side of the ledger failed to fire. To be fair, eighth for Broc Feeney and 10^th for Will Brown is not a total misfire, but for Red Bull Ampol Racing, it isn’t the pointy end, and the boss was probably cranky.

Matt Payne and Cam Hill were next, and Ryan Wood and Chaz Mostert were fifth and sixth… making it three Kiwis and three Aussies in the top six.

There was a little whoopsie for Ryan Wood, which was the only real excitement for the session.

Pos	Driver	Time	Gap
1	Andre Heimgartner	1:26.8830
2	Anton De Pasquale	1:26.9088	0:00.0258
3	Matthew Payne	1:26.9660	0:00.0830
4	Cameron Hill	1:27.0105	0:00.1275
5	Ryan Wood	1:27.1526	0:00.2696
6	Chaz Mostert	1:27.1836	0:00.3006
7	Brodie Kostecki	1:27.2482	0:00.3652
8	Broc Feeney	1:27.2496	0:00.3666
9	Richie Stanaway	1:27.3105	0:00.4275
10	William Brown	1:27.3582	0:00.4752

Taupo Super440

Practice 1 – 1: A. Heimgartner 1:26.8830 2: Anton De Pasquale +0.0258 3: Matt Payne +0.0830

Practice 2 – 1: Ryan Wood 1:25.9778; 2: Brodie Kostecki +0.0435; 3: Thomas Randle +0.0838

Sat 8.25-8.55: Supercars Race 8 Qualifying

Sat 9.05-9.35: Supercars Race 9 Qualifying

Sat 10.50: Supercars Race 8 (37 laps)

Sat 14.05: Supercars Race 9 (37 laps)

Sun 8.35-9.05: Supercars Race 10 Qualifying

Sun 10.50-11.35: Supercars Race 10 Top 10 Shootout

Sun 13.05: Supercars Race 10 (61 laps)

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Clarkie’s notepad: Taupo

Chev on the run

Brad Jones is ‘perfectly’ clear

Fast Wood wants 4 Kiwi rounds

Heimgartner Topped Practice 1

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