McIntyre extends Championship lead

The sweaty face of John McIntyre said it all after three hot, dusty races during the A1GP meeting in Taupo.
“It’s absolutely sensational to win the round and extend the championship lead, but the circuit was very difficult with dirt being pulled onto the racing line and we’ve never had a reverse grid race with so much damage,” said McIntyre after winning two of the three races and managing to drive from the back of the 33 car strong grid into seventh place in the final reverse grid race.

McIntyre started the three-day A1GP meeting in the BP Ultimate Ford with the third fastest qualifying time and took the first race win after a hard-fought battle with fastest qualifier Andy Booth in the Tasman Motorsport Holden.

In the weekend’s second race, Booth muscled past McIntyre to emerge the race leader just seconds after the start and looked all set to take his – and Holden’s – first win of the season. Booth, a two-time V8 champion, crossed the line in first place, but later officials concluded his driving behaviour on that first corner wasn’t appropriate due to contact being made between Booth and McIntyre’s cars, and penalised him by adding 50 seconds to his total race time. This dropped Booth to 14th place and awarded the win – and maximum points – to McIntyre.

The last race on the card for the A1GP weekend was the V8s 22-lap reverse grid race. With the starting grid determined by adding the points earned in the first two races, then reversing the order, the Strapping Systems Holden of Kevin Williams was on pole with John Penny’s SCG Motorsport Ford alongside him. McIntyre was at the very back of the 33-strong grid.

Key pacesetters David Besnard and Paul Pedersen carved through the field. From 19th, Besnard climbed to second, chasing a determined Williams in the lead. Pedersen came from 27th through to third and when the only safety car intervention in the three V8 races was required to extract Dale Lambert from the gravel, Besnard and Pedersen were able to close on Williams. A tremendous battle for the lead eventually saw Pedersen in front and through to take the chequered flag. Besnard’s car slowed dramatically and he could only finish 23rd. Williams held on for a well-deserved second place, while Booth had charged from 23rd into third to improve his overall championship placing to fifth equal with team-mate Paul Manuell who was unable to finish the race after solid performances earlier in the weekend.

Two-time world touring car champion Paul Radisich hasn’t been enamoured with the reverse grid format, saying: “It’s silly racing; it’s not racing. Dodgem’s racing maybe.” After a 22nd place in the final race, Radisich finished the weekend holding fourth place in the series.

Kayne Scott, the 2005-06 V8 champion, came into the Taupo round in second place, but various issues saw the Fujitsu Ford driver score a second, and, uncharacteristically, a fourth and 14th to drop him into third place overall.

Taking over second place on the leader-board, Angus Fogg was pleased with the final outcome for his new Havoline Ford’s first outing. “We had to borrow an engine after blowing on during testing, but the car’s been pretty good out of the box. I’ve saved two of our six allocated Dunlop tyres for Manfeild and we’ll have a new engine too, so I need to get some race wins and haul in McIntyre.”

McIntyre got caught up in a series of incidents in the reverse grid race but came through to finish seventh. This gave McIntyre maximum points and an extended lead in the New Zealand V8s championship going into the fourth round at Manfeild on 16-17 February 2008.