John McIntyre, two-time and defending BNT V8s champion, tops the points’ table as the popular V8 racing series heads to Pukekohe Park for their season finale.
Billed the Hydraulink grand finals, the seventh and final round of the 2008-09 BNT V8s Championship features McIntyre returning to the top of the leader-board with 1,022 points. McIntyre and the BP Ultimate Ford are just 38 points ahead of the series leader for the past two rounds, Fujitsu Ford driver Kayne Scott who has 984 points.
With McIntyre scoring a history-making three wins in one round at Manfeild’s penultimate round and Scott suffering a run of back luck, who knows what the last three races of the season on Pukekohe’s notoriously quick circuit will bring?
McIntyre says the Hawke’s Bay-based John McIntyre Racing team has been very busy with preparation with just two weeks between rounds. “Our gearbox has required new components and we have also installed a new clutch and flywheel, re-kitted the brakes, replaced the rear windscreen, checked the engine (still on our first change) and had all of the suspension apart,” reports McIntyre.
“Paul Manuell had pole at Pukekohe when we raced there in November and we’ll have six or seven cars within a few tenths of a second there – along with Kayne [Scott] and Bairdo [Craig Baird], guys like Tim Edgell will be in the mix for qualifying. Having pole position will be important, but there are also good opportunities for passing at Pukekohe, so we’ll be fighting for the championship right down to the wire,” says ‘Johnny Mac’ who is racing for a history-making third consecutive BNT V8s championship title.
Preparations at the Auckland workshops of Mark Petch Motorsport with Scott’s Fujitsu Ford and the Garry Pedersen-led team which runs the United Video Ford for Craig Baird are sure to be every bit as intense. Baird moved into third in the championship at the Manfeild round and although he’s 128 points adrift of Scott, the many-time race champion has dramatically improved his championship standings since a few mishaps earlier in the season. This is Baird’s first full season in the BNT V8s and, as expected, he’s proved a very competitive and exciting contender in this series.
Over at AV8 Motorsport in Kumeu, final preparations are taking place for the top-placed Holdens of Andy Booth who went back to fourth place in the Big Ben Pies Commodore after a challenging Manfeild round, Paul Manuell who holds fifth in the Orix Commodore and Andrew Anderson standing firm in tenth overall in the ITM Commodore.
Manuell reports recent testing on Pukekohe’s 2.8 kilometre circuit has been very encouraging for the former champion who took pole position and a race victory at November’s Pukekohe round. “We were faster this week than any other testing session we’ve had at Pukekohe,” says Manuell. “That’s encouraging and we’re hoping to repeat pole position – that’s going to be vital for this final round.”
In sixth position overall going into this final round of his first season with his own team, Angus Fogg has continued to work on the LG Falcon, with more engine dyno tuning and upgrading panel and paintwork after Manfeild’s wet and slippery races.
“We’re looking to better our existing lap record at Pukekohe,” says Fogg. “We’d also like to build on November’s strong performance where we qualified on the front row of the grid; to go one better and take pole would be ideal.”
Canterbury’s Eddie Bell has delivered some outstanding performances in the Independent Fisheries Ford to move back into seventh place after Manfeild. After what he describes as a “mixed bag and a hard weekend of racing at Manfeild, it would be nice to finish in the top ten in our first full season,” says the former Mini Series champion. “Next year I’d like to press on; you always want to improve.”
Regrettably former champion Paul Pedersen won’t be racing in the Pukekohe finals. The Rotorua driver experienced one of the most unusual crashes ever seen in the BNT V8s at Manfeild. The Tigercat Ford lost traction coming through Manfeild’s esses in the wet and skidded across the grass towards a safety marshal point to park virtually on top of a trailer used to recover stranded race cars. The damage to the Tigercat Ford was considerable and at this stage there’s no word whether Pedersen will return to race at the non-championship round at the Hamilton 400 V8 Supercar event in April.
Christchurch driver Adam Brook holds a hard-fought ninth place going into the Pukekohe finale with the Versatile Buildings Ford one of just four cars to finish every single race so far this season. Scott, Manuell and thirteenth-placed John Penny are the other three competitors with 100% finishing records.
The Hydraulink grand finals see the BNT V8s in action during two official test sessions on Friday 13 March, 1:50pm and 4:00pm. The three-part qualifying programme starts at 1:30pm on Saturday 14 March. All competitors run in an initial 20-minute qualifying session, then the fastest 20 run for a 15-minute session, and the top ten effectively run a top ten shoot-out for another 15 minutes. Race one – 12 laps – is scheduled for 5:10pm. A 16-lap race starts at 11:25am on Sunday 15 March and a 20-lap reverse grid race at 4:00pm, all with rolling starts.
A special autograph signing session featuring BNT V8 drivers John McIntyre and Andy Booth is being hosted by BP Connect on the corner of Tobin and Edinburgh Streets in Pukekohe on Friday night from 7 to 7:30pm. Listen out for more details on the Auckland frequencies of Radio Hauraki, Radio Sport, Classic Hits and ZM. BP will be giving away tickets to the race meeting and vouchers for coffee and BP fuel, as well as a fantastic BP/John McIntyre Racing-branded Xbox 360, personally autographed by John McIntyre. To enter the draw to win the Xbox, fans must attend the signing session at BP Connect.
The Hydraulink grand finals also include the Toyota Racing Series, Porsche GT3 Cup Series, New Zealand Production Racing Championship, MTA Formula Fords, and Mini Challenge for a full weekend’s race schedule.
The BNT V8s website – www.nzv8s.co.nz – features the latest news, photos, event information and options to purchase tickets for each of the championship rounds. Tickets can also be purchased at the gate or from participating BP petrol stations. Results and news are loaded onto the website throughout the weekend.
BNT V8s Championship – Provisional points after round six
1, John McIntyre, Nelson, Ford Falcon, 1022
2, Kayne Scott, Hamilton, Ford Falcon, 984
3, Craig Baird, Gold Coast, Ford Falcon, 856
4, Andy Booth, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 827
5, Paul Manuell, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 738
6, Angus Fogg, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 655
7, Eddie Bell, Christchurch, Ford Falcon, 605
8, Paul Pedersen, Taupo, Ford Falcon, 590
9, Adam Brook, Christchurch, Ford Falcon, 569
10, Andrew Anderson, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 564
11, Michael Bristow, Pukekohe, Ford Falcon, 558
12, Tim Edgell, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 507
13, John Penny, Taupo, Holden Commodore, 485
14, Dale Williams, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 472
15, Andrew Porter, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 401
16, Nick Ross, Cambridge, Holden Commodore, 389
17, Inky Tulloch, Gore, Ford Falcon, 387
18, Simon Richards, Hamilton, Ford Falcon, 350
19, Andy Knight, Christchurch, Ford Falcon, 281
20, John Hepburn, Timaru, Holden Commodore, 269
21, Luke Youlden, Melbourne, Ford Falcon, 201
22, Alan McCarrison, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 197
23, Chris Adams, Mosgiel, Holden Commodore, 197
24, Paul Radisich, Melbourne, Ford Falcon, 181
25, Steve Owen, Melbourne, Ford Falcon, 144
26, Boyd Norwood, Palmerston North, Ford Falcon, 114
27, Dave Stewart*, Wellington, Holden Commodore, 104
28, David Besnard, Gold Coast, Ford Falcon, 88
29, Mack Peach, Bombay, Ford Falcon, 74
30, David Hopper, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 67
31, Cam Hardy, Hamilton, Holden Commodore, 54
32, Julia Huzziff, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 48
33, Shaun Turton, Pukekohe, Holden Commodore, 18
34, Dean Perkins*, Pukekohe, Ford Falcon, 0
* Please note that Dean Perkins and Dave Stewart were competing in Round 2 under a “parked V8 franchise” agreement and therefore were ineligible for championship points for that round.
2008-09 BNT V8s Championship calendar
Round 1 Fujitsu 200, Taupo Motorsport Park, 3-5 October 2008
Round 2, Hydraulink 200, Pukekohe Park, 7-9 November 2008
Round 3, Hampsta 200, Powerbuilt Tools International Raceway (Christchurch), 28-30 November 2008
Round 4, Southern 200, Timaru International Motor Raceway, 9-11 January 2009
Round 5, Southern 200, Teretonga Park (Invercargill), 16-18 January 2009
Round 6, Fujitsu 200, Manfeild Park (Fielding), 27 February - 1 March 2009
Round 7, Hydraulink Grand Finals, Pukekohe Park, 13-15 March 2009
Non-championship trophy round, Hamilton 400, 17-19 April 2009
