Well it was and up and down time at Manfield for LG ZM Swift (Barbara) coming away a slim 29pts ahead in the championship with only one round to go!

Because it is vital that we finish the final three races at Taupo over the 19-21 March weekend 'Barb' is now off to Hamilton for a complete rebuild. Hopefully this reduces the chance of a mechanical break down and increases our pace out on the track.

DRIVER REPORT MAD BUTCHER 200
The 5th round of the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup was held at Manfield over the weekend and it was a steady and sucsseful end to what was a rough start to the weekend. Here's a run down of the Mad Butcher 200 for LG ZM Swift.
 
TESTING

Anna and I are back from Manly and now taking two weeks off sand trainings to refresh for the international season ahead.

It is great news that the fight is back on with Hopoate at The Festival Hall in Melbourne on March 18. It is really important to win this fight, not only to get that winning feeling back but to get back on track to achieving my goals.

Race Report: LG ZB Falcon

We have arrived at Manly for our 10 full on days of training and we are pumped after our 'lull' Suz described!

After making friends with the kindly man sitting next to me on the plane, we found out that we were all heading to Manly beach and at the end of our flight he kindly offered us a ride in his Taxi! So again, the friendliness of a stranger has saved us not only money, but the struggle of maneuvering our suitcases in public transport! THANKS!

Often at this time of year Anna or I, or both of us can have a "lull" feeling which comes after the last event of the tour. It is almost like the winter blues or end of season blues except we are far from the end of our season and we never have winter:) However the lull doesnt last long as we have an exciting time ahead of us after nearly consolidating our calendar for the season and we are also off to Manly to train for 10 days on Sunday.

Hi all from Timaru, where the LGZB Falcon is on pole position for tomorrows race 1 !!

The weather was pretty average this morning, but improved as the day went on to be dry and cool for the qualifying sessions.

The crew worked hard on setup changes to chase those last tenths of a second, and we were very happy to get our first pole for the season.

We currently hold the V8 lap record at Timaru, and hope to have a good run tomorrow with at least one race win, and a podium for the weekend.

More news as it happens !

Angus and the team

Hi everyone following a successful race meeting in Invercargill for round three of the BNT V8s Championship where we achieved third place overall for the CRC200.  Here’s our meeting report for you:
TESTING : 1st in both sessions
After a lot of hard work on the car, we were stoked to be able to turn up to the track, unload and setup, and be on the pace straight away. In fact in both test sessions we were around half a second quicker than the rest! When you are able to dominate early like that it definitely helps the mindset of the driver and crew.

Well the LG/ZB Falcon has undergone a comprehensive makeover after our last race meeting, we have been over the car with a fine tooth comb, and found and remedied many small issues that had been hampering our recent progress. I have had a few days off at the beach, and feel refreshed and re-energised for the next two back-to-back rounds at Teretonga Park in Invercargill, the worlds most southern race track, and a week later at Levels, the cool little track in Timaru where I hold the V8 lap record, the goal being to lower it some more this year !

I have been keeping busy with speaking engagements and went down to Ashburton with Frank Bunce, Phil Kingsley Jones and Lisa Tamati, where we took part in a guest speaking promotion evening for a Christmas function.  As you can imagine with Phil and Frank in the line up, it was highly amusing and Lisa was very inspirational.  I also spoke at the Wairoa Sports Awards and spoke in Taupo for one of the Power Station’s down there.  That was a great evening an

Im just not feeling the Christmas vibe yet, but I have another week to get into it I guess. The lack of Christmas feeling could be due to my resistance to be part of the madness in the shops at this time of year. But to please my loved ones with pressies I have to get in there :) However there is one thing that lets me know Christmas is near each year.........the Pohutukawa trees and I love seeing these each day along Tamaki Drive. Thats a unique NZ Christmas sign just for us:)

Well the never ending search for those last few tenths of a second never ends, and combined with the damage from our crash at Pukekohe we have decided to give the LGZB Falcon another big birthday. The front of the car is completely stripped from the firewall forward in readiness for some new chassis rail extensions, inner guards and other front panels. At the same time we will be re-visiting some other areas such as radiators and ducting, brake cooling and suspension.

Hi everyone following another action-packed race meeting in Christchurch for round two of the BNT V8s Championship.  Here’s our meeting report for you…
TESTING

Well after a massive effort from the team after an action-packed first round at Pukekohe where we had a great fight back on raceday to end up only 3 points off third place overall, we now head south to Powerbuilt Tools Raceway at Ruapuna, just out of Christchurch. Ruapuna has been a happy hunting ground for us in the past, and after some recent gains in the engine department, and some new suspension tweaks, we head into the second meeting of the championship fully prepared to take the battle to the next level !

The Last month has been a very successful one for us. Our 13th in Sanya and 17th in Phuket, although due to a crazy draw we had a pretty hard cross over vs Greece (7th in the World). But that is the way the cookie crumbles! With these results our World ranking will sit at 33rd going into next year! Not too shabby coming from 62nd at the start of the year. On top of that, we have been accepted by SPARC for a grant! This has been a huge relief for us! It means that along with LG's support we can actually continue next year and we now only need to find money for a coach!!!!

I am now back in the gym doing some basic training to keep in shape and maintain my fitness level.  I have to have a three month stand down period and will use this break to get the rods taken out of my hand. A date hasn’t been set for the operation but hopefully it will happen soon.

Well it's all go, go, go in the race workshop as we finalise preparations for Pukekohe Park next weekend. We had a couple of successful test days this week and the LG ZB V8 is having the final touches added now. A fresh race engine is due to be finished and dyno tuned early next week and we welcome another new sponsor on board – all will be revealed next Saturday.

Anna and I are currently in Sanya, China for our second to last World Tour event of the 09 seaon. We have been preparing well in Auckland through the cold snaps, the rain and the start of the summer sun.

We were thrown a slight curve ball prior to this event with the introduction of a new ball, but only for this event. We had not been sent this new ball to train with like the majority of the other teams here and it is certainly different!! Its floating capabilities and texture make for some crazy serve receptions!! Its all lined up one second and not there the next.

Obviously the fight didn’t go how we planned but full credit to David and his camp, they did a great job. People ask why we let the fight go on after round one but I wanted to because all those people had paid a lot of money and I personally wanted to carry on.