20 July 2003
TKR 11th Quickest In Morning Practise

With testing time being limited for TKR this weekend, the crew have been working hard putting the finishing touches to the new chassis and engine package at Queensland raceway, resulting in an 11th quickest during this morning's warm up.

"The changes we made overnight to the car after qualifying yesterday, have made even further gains today as evident in the warmup times. This, plus more time for me in the car and the crew to understand the new 036 chassis characteristics, is allowing us to keep improving every time we go out on the track," said driver Craig Baird.

TKR are confident that they will have a good race package for this 300km event, and with a full test day after Queensland round scheduled, the team can spend more time learning how to maximise the performance and set up of the new package.

"We have plenty more in this package, we just need a little more time to maximise this as we know we are not transfering the maximum horsepower the new engine is producing to the ground as yet."

"But it soon will," says Team Manager Martin Collins.

19 July 2003
TKR Pickup Best Qualifying From New Package

TKR driver Craig Baird has secured the teams' best qualifying position so far this year at Queensland Raceway, but the team know that there is still plenty more to extract from the new package as they get on top of the car's set up.

TKR have had limited track time to fine tune the new chassis and engine package, after finally taking delivery of the engine last Thursday.

With the finishing touches completed with only 15 minutes left in the first 90 minute practice session, the team were then learning how best to maximise the new potential.

Craig Baird's first impressions of the new developments are very positive.

"I am excited about the potential this package has. I could instantly feel the extra power in the new engine package and when along side the top teams we could match them for straight line speed that previously we could not, seeing them just take off and or pull out and pass us with ease."

"All we need to do is get on top of this new car's setup which will allow for the extra power we know we have, to be transferred to the ground correctly, and then we will have a very good race package indeed," said Craig Baird.

Team Kiwi Racing have qualified 22nd, seeing them up 10 places on last race qualifying position, and yet there is still plenty more performance to be gained out of the new package:

Final qualifying positions for Queensland from 15th to 33rd are:
15th Shell Helix - Steven Johnson
16th Kmart Racing - Rick Kelly
17th SuperCheap - Steve Ellery
18th Shell Helix - Max Wilson
19th Garry Rogers Motorsport - Garth Tander
20th Orrcon Racing - Mark Larkham
21st Orrcon Racing - Jason Bargwana
22nd Team Kiwi Racing - Craig Baird
23rd Team Dynamik - Jason Richards
24th Team Brock - Paul Weel
25th Lansvale Crash - Cameron McConville
26th Garry Rogers Motorsport - Jamie Whincup
27th OZEmail Racing - Brad Jones
28th Castrol Perkins Racing - Paul Dumbrell
29th Castrol Perkins Racing - Steven Richards
30th INXS - Mark Noske
31st Toll Racing - Anthony Tratt
32nd AMRO - Wayne Wakefield
33rd Thexton Motorsport - David Thexton

19 July 2003
New Chassis, New Engine And Fingers Crossed

Team Kiwi Racing have been working frantically over the past couple of months to get their own in house development package ready in preparation for getting TKR back on track.

The frantic push and dedication from the TKR crew to improve the cars on track performance and get back to what they should have done at the beginning of the season, highlights the determination of this New Zealand based team.

The TKR crew worked through the night on Thursday of this week, only stopping to catch their flights to Queensland on Friday morning.

The teams transporter left Melbourne soon after that and drove with two truck drivers 19 hours straight to get to Queensland raceway at 7.00am the following morning.

On arrival at Queensland Raceway the TKR crew eagerly unloaded the transporter so they could get on with finishing the fitment of the new engine and overall checks of the new chassis 036.

TKR finished the checks with 15 minutes left in the 90 minute first practice session, but there is still two more free practice sessions on Saturday for Baird and the crew to fine tune the new package and start pushing the car and himself to the limits.

Craig Baird reported that he could instantly feel the extra power in the engine even though he was ordered to only circulate for the remaining 15 minutes of the first practice, so the crew could check for any leaks and or problems with the car and or engine as this was the first time the engine had run.

TKR will now focus on getting the set up of the car right before the next free practice sessions and then focus on qualifying.

Go Kiwi - Go Black