The opening round of the 2007 V8 Trophy racing championship was to be a turbulent one for Hunter Abbott, having experienced one of the heaviest crashes of his career in testing on Friday. Having just set the fastest lap of the session Hunter drifted slightly wide on the infamous turn 4 of Rockingham and collided with the retaining wall at over 145 mph, taking one corner off his car and cracking two ribs in the impact.
The car would not come back out for the remainder of testing while the CWS team rebuilt the front right hand corner of the car just in the nick of time for Qualifying. When the car rolled out it appeared the team excelled themselves in repairing it with Hunter taking 2nd place in qualifying to team-mate Colin White on pole.
Race one on Sunday proved to be exciting from start to finish with the lead changing a record breaking 12 times in the 35 lap race with the majority of the laps being led by Hunter. On lap 27 a safety car period was called after Shane Brereton hit the wall in turn 4. At the restart Hunter lost out to Colin who timed the start slightly better and a spring ensued between Hunter and Colin for the last 8 laps. Trying everything he knew Hunter crossed the line side by side with Colin, missing the race win by 0.080 seconds or 3 feet!!
Race two proved equally entertaining for the crowd with the 170 mph V8 cars lining up for the start of the race and Hunter Abbott in second place on the grid. At the start Hunter kept his position on the outside of team-mate Colin White and for 3 laps Hunter and Colin ran side by side fighting for the lead of the race before Hunter won through and Colin dropped to second. Over the next 10 laps the lead swapped hands between John Steward, Hunter, Colin White and Tony Hurdle. As the two cars of Hunter and Colin started to come on they worked as a team, drafting one another to building a five second gap to the fighting cars of Steward, Hurdle, Gray and Wilkinson. Once the gap had been built world war 3 erupted between Hunter and Colin White fighting for the lead with multiple overtaking manoeuvres on the last corner of the last lap Hunter made his move to overtake Colin, going around the outside in turn 4, both cars sprinting for the line and a photo finish was called. Again Hunter missed out on the win but this time by only 0.034s and about 6 inches!
Following the race Hunter said “What a weekend, this has been some of the closest racing I have been involved in since karting! After the heavy shunt I had in practice on Saturday all credit has to go to the team in getting the Blaupunkt/Spirit of Adventure car built again and that competitive in such a short time. The next modification I’m going to ask for is to make the car as wide as Colin’s seems to be!!”