BLANCHARD Racing Team prodigy Aaron Love snuck in a valuable visit to Taupo Motorsport Park in preparation for his rookie Repco Supercars Championship campaign.
Flying under the radar was Love’s participation in Round 1 of New Zealand’s Super V8 Race Series last month, just before the Adelaide 500.
The 21-year-old was driving a VE Commodore SuperTourer in the open class and won the opening race.
The purpose of the expedition?
“It was just a thing to get some laps at Taupo because we’re racing there next year,” Love explained to V8 Sleuth.
“It’s quite difficult to get on that track and it fit in perfectly (before) Adelaide.”
Having tasted Super2 victory for BRT at Bathurst, Love is stepping up to the main game as part of a two-car Blanchard effort in 2024 alongside James Courtney.
Round 3 of 12 will fall at Taupo, where many drivers have yet to turn a lap. Love is no longer one of them.
“It’s pretty cool, it’s almost like a bit of a mini-Tailem Bend,” Love said of the central North Island circuit.
“It’s very flowing but also there’s some big braking zones.
“It will be interesting next year because the surface is really rough, so it will be quite hard on the tyres. Us drivers and the teams will hate it but I think it will make for good racing.”
As for the SuperTourer he was steering?
“Obviously it has got a lot of characteristics that are very similar to a Supercar, being a sequential gearbox and V8 and rear-wheel-drive, but it had a solid rear axle so kind of like the old Supercars, which are now Kumho cars,” said Love.
“They seem quite solid but they’re very limited grip like I would imagine a VE Supercar is, but just with a little bit more downforce.
“I could relate a lot of it to the Supercar but everything is different and I think it’s a positive for any driver to drive something that’s different, it can only broaden your knowledge and you can only learn from it.”
Love has two Supercars Championship starts under his belt, having shared a BRT wildcard with Jake Kostecki at this year’s Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000.
