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12^th March, 2002

Kiwis robbed of vital race data

Team Kiwi Racing’s brave crusade against the V8 Supercar establishment has been dealt a cruel blow, with computers containing track and car data stolen from their Auckland headquarters.

The extensive database was the result of 18 months of development work completed by the fledgling outfit, including car set-up specifications for every V8 Supercar circuit.

A team statement today condemned the “despicable, disgusting” criminal acts.

Team Kiwi boss David John said the loss of data would impact on the team’s charge up the V8 Supercar order this year.

"The importance of the information we have lost is significant," he said.

“The specific computer programmes and data is what saw Team Kiwi Racing improve 14 positions from last year’s result at the Melbourne Grand Prix a couple of weeks ago, as we had something for the first time to read and overlap on last year’s results to find extra speed in the car and driver.”

Mr John said the team was completely focused on this weekend’s Clipsal 500, and not until after the event would they “readdress the situation at hand.”

Only last week, Team Kiwi announced plans to abandon its New Zealand two-litre touring car campaign, to concentrate on developing its VX Commodores for the NZ V8 touring car series and V8 Supercar championship.