Battle of the New Manufacturers?

Erebus Motorsport V8 had a strong showing throughout the Practice sessions at the Coates Hire Ipswich 360 and then Nissan Motorsport had a more reasonable run in the Race 22. But how much competition is there between the two new manufacturers?

We know about Holden v Ford – what about Nissan v Mercedes-Benz?

Jack Daniel’s Racing driver and team owner Rick Kelly didn’t seem overly happy with his result in Race 22 – he has achieved as high as fifth in the new Altima this season – and though the three Erebus entries ran into trouble, he commented that they’ve “still got pace”.

The top four form seen in practice from the three Erebus machines didn’t translate to qualifying yesterday, with Tim Slade the only Merc in the top 10 in eighth, and it went downhill from there. Lee Holdsworth recorded a DNF (did not finish), Maro Engel had brake issues and Slade received a mechanical black flag for loose bodywork after being involved in an incident. Engel finished 19th and Slade 24th – not many points for that, unfortunately.

See what EMV8 team manager David Stuart had to say in the ‘From the Teams’ section in the Drivers’ Quoteboard: Race 22.

On the flip side, none of the four Nissans made it in the 10 in qualifying, but Kelly and Moffat made up a stack of positions in the 120km – six for ‘Moff’ who ended the day 10th, nine for Rick, over the 120km race who came home in 13th. 

So it was the Nissans that brought home the points.

So far this season, the best finish for a Nissan Altima was fifth at the Austin 400 (Rick Kelly) and sixth for a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG at the SKYCITY Triple Crown (Tim Slade).

While Nissan Motorsport has two teams recorded in the Championship, Erebus Motorsport V8 is just one. The Norton Hornets (Moffat and Michael Caruso) sits seventh, Jack Daniel’s Racing (Kelly brothers) is eighth and EMV8 is 10th.

Of the seven drivers, Rick Kelly is highest in the Championship points in 12th – one spot ahead of The Bottle-O FPR’s David Reynolds, in fact.

Kelly said from his point of view, Erebus Motorsport V8 was definitely a comparative marker for Nissan.

“They’re a new manufacturer so you always mark yourself against someone with similarities like that, particularly in the changing environment of V8 Supercars,” he said after Race 22.

“For us you always get out of the car and see where your teammates are and see if we can learn from them – and then you look where Erebus are, and then you look where other people in the Championship around you are.”

While Kelly didn’t want to see anyone do badly, it was more about achieving the milestones first.

“You want to get to the top 10 first, you want to get the first top five, the first race win as the new guy – it’s very important.

“Those guys did such a good job, from what we hear on the test day, and on Friday. They’ve sorted out some of their issues, and away they go.

“For us that’s great because you need a new manufacturer – whether it’s us or them – to get great results so it lures more manufacturers and it validates the program even further.

“However – we want that to be us and if they’re up the front and we’re not, it puts pressure on us to push harder.”

Kelly was quick to point out there were differences between the resource bases for the teams, with Nissan Motorsport’s development all done in-house.

The two things required? A big budget, and time.

“And unfortunately the category isn’t going to stop while we sort out our engine!” the former V8 Supercars Champion said.

“The Championship rolls on and we still have to get from round to round, and we still have to service our engines. We don’t have a team that can just focus on engine development – so we’re doing the best that we can and we’ve got some stuff in the pipeline that is really exciting.

“I’ve got to say, we’re really proud of where we are at, at the moment.

“The big thing for us is we’re just a couple of blokes from Mildura! And when you come to a project of bringing a new manufacturer in – we don’t know what it takes, but we sure as hell bit off probably a little bit more than we can chew. But we chewed like hell and we’ve got a really great bunch of guys that implemented that program for us…

“Everyone’s motivation to get to the front is really rewarding for Todd and I… we’ve got the best blokes in pit lane in my opinion and the team morale is very strong because of it.”

The V8 Supercars action on the third and final day of the Coates Hire Ipswich 360 kicks off at 9.35am AEST today with two back-to-back qualifying sessions, and the first of two races at 1.45pm.