Christchurch’s Jayden Dodge is stepping up to the brutal power and packed grids of V8 Ute racing this weekend driving the Stadium Finance Ford Falcon.
Fresh from winning the 2016 SsangYong Actyon series, 22-year-old Dodge says the move to the V8 category is about ‘taking your time’.
“The speeds are higher, the braking points change, and the competition is still very close, so it’s very busy out there. You have to be more deliberate and I find myself working with the car more of the time,” he said.
Dodge has tested his new Ford at Pukekohe and Hampton Downs but will complete his first laps at race pace during this weekend’s ITM Auckland SuperSprint Supercar event at Pukekohe. The presence of other utes during testing has given him some indication of the pace required. He found the physicality of the big ute required him to reset his approach to racing.
“It takes a lot to get the best out of one of these things. With the less powerful categories you could be quite hard on the controls and get away with it but the power and torque of these things mean you really have to work hard and be very smooth to get a good lap time,” he said.
Dodge’s motorsport career began in karting in 2008. When he moved out of karts six years later he began establishing a reputation as a single-make specialist, competing in two rounds of the 2014-2015 SsangYong series, the Toyota Finance 86 Championship (11th overall) and then returning to the SsangYong’s for 2015-16 season where he won his first series title.
Most of the V8 Utes’ competitors race with nicknames on their utes. Dodge will race under the somewhat hip hop-sounding moniker ‘Sangy D’.
The Porter Group V8 Utes are on the support card for the 4-6 November ITM Auckland SuperSprint event at Pukekohe Raceway, with races at 9.35am and 3.30pm on Saturday, and at 11.05 on Sunday.
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