John McIntyre takes the first win at Taupo

Defending New Zealand V8s champion John McIntyre made sure he took every possible opportunity to score maximum points and extend his lead with a win in the weekend’s first of three races for the V8s at the Taupo A1GP meeting.
Starting in third with the more advantageous inside line going into opening left-hander, McIntyre was quick to move into second place behind pole-setter Andy Booth, forcing Kayne Scott, who started second, back into third.

Booth and McIntyre quickly established a gap over the chasing pack of Scott, Paul Manuell, Paul Pedersen and Paul Radisich. From his qualifying position of seventh, having been hampered by an ill-performing carburettor during qualifying, Radisich passed Pedersen, while Tim Edgell, who’d scored a V8 career best when he qualified in sixth, appeared to be pushed off the circuit and dropped well down the field.

Having set a blistering time during Friday’s qualifying sessions, Booth was determined to keep the Tasman Motorsport Holden in the lead, but despite Booth’s best efforts, on lap five McIntyre snatched the inside line at the hairpin to give himself the full distance of the long main straight to sling-shot the BP Ultimate Ford past Booth. With Booth now providing a Holden-sized buffer between McIntyre and Scott, McIntyre pulled out quite a lead as Scott battled to get past Booth.

Meanwhile Angus Fogg, who had qualified his brand-new Havoline Ford in the unusual position of eleventh, climbed several places to duel with his team-mate Paul Pedersen who was driving Fogg’s old car in his first V8 race this season in sixth and seventh until Manuell had a big lock-up in the Orix Holden at the end of the main straight which allowed Radisich, and then Fogg past. Booth also appeared to have issues, dropping from second to fifth in a matter of seconds.

Unable to set a qualifying time on Friday as his team waited on the delivery of a new engine, V8 Supercar driver David Besnard started the 14 lap race from the back of the 32 car-strong grid. Besnard gained one or two places every lap to put the SCG Motorsport Ford in a very credible eleventh place by the second to last lap until a heart-breaking miscalculation of fuel usage saw Besnard’s car run out of fuel. Determined to cross the line, Besnard used the starter motor to propel the car forward at barely walking pace for nearly half a lap, but the slight uphill slope to the finish line ultimately defeated him. Besnard’s team-mate John Penny suffered the same fuel-shortfall and also was unable to finish.

After 14 hot and very dusty laps, McIntyre took a well-earned win, the maximum 75 points and a new lap record of 1:36.928 to earn himself pole position for Sunday’s 18 lap race. Scott finished second, holding second in the championship behind McIntyre. Radisich was third to close up on Fogg in the points’ table. Fogg was fourth, Booth fifth, Paul Pedersen sixth, Manuell seventh with the hard-battling trio of Mark Pedersen (no relation to Paul), Dean Perkins and Clark Proctor rounding out the top ten.

McIntyre said that after seven or eight laps, the wind and cars going off the circuit meant there was a lot of dust moving across the racing line. “You’d come into a corner and get a surprise, but there isn’t major tyre wear on this circuit so we’re in a pretty good position for Sunday’s two races.”

Scott said: “Andy Booth certainly had some pace, but when he locked it up, I was able to get past. We seemed to have a different setup and our car really came on better towards the end as tyre pressures change.”

Scott added that he wasn’t alone amongst the V8 drivers when commenting that the changes to the sequence of corners at the end of the main straight. “That corner has done away with a fantastic passing opportunity for our class. You could get three-wide through there and then see what happened! Now we essentially have to follow through in single file.”

Radisich was pleased with third, given it’s the first time he’s raced on the revamped Taupo circuit. “We did have some technical issues yesterday, but we got a good start for a consistent race and third place.”

The starting grid for Sunday’s 18 lap race is determined by each driver’s fastest times from the first race. McIntyre has pole, Scott second, Booth third and Besnard will be pleased to have the opportunity to start from fourth. Fogg starts from fifth, Radisich sixth, Manuell seventh, Paul Pedersen eighth, Proctor ninth and Mark Pedersen from tenth.

The New Zealand V8s then wrap up the A1GP meeting with the very last race on the card, a 22 lap reverse grid race at 5pm on Sunday. Starting positions for the reverse grid are determined by adding the points from the first two races, then reversing the whole line-up.