No turnaround, says McIntyre re Pukekohe V8 SuperTourer event
Friday 17 May 2013, 5:15PM
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John McIntyre doesn’t want to be turned around again when the V8 SuperTourer field hits Pukekohe Park Raceway for round three of their 2013 season.
“Quite frankly, I’ve been turned around by other competitors more than enough already this season,” says the Nelson-based V8 race champion. “At critical points of our race meetings at Hampton Downs and Ruapuna, the #47 Blackwoods Protector Falcon was tagged and turned around by others which didn’t help our results.”
Buoyed by the recent confirmation of his V8 Supercar endurance race drives with Alex Davison in the Jeld-Wen Falcon, McIntyre has been giving serious thought to how best to improve his current V8 SuperTourer series placing of seventh when the three-race Pukekohe round takes place over the weekend of 25 and 26 May
“Qualifying is absolutely critical in this intensely competitive field. We’ve had practice times which were faster than official qualifying times. Part of the reason is I’m working with a different engineer this year and the car set-up is different to last year. We’ve been going through a range of changes between practice and qualifying, so we’ve gone a step too far in both sessions this season. We think we know where we need to leave things now, so come Saturday 25 May we’ll see if we’ve got it right. Ultimately I’ve got to put together the right qualifying lap on the day.”
McIntyre made the most of the opportunity to try out the revised format of the Pukekohe circuit at April’s V8 Supercar ITM400 event by racing his championship-winning NZV8 in the support category.
“Before I’d driven the new circuit, I felt the changes would take away a genuine passing opportunity going into the hairpin. Now I realise there are more opportunities, going into the new turn five as well as into the hairpin. It’s produced a circuit when even better chances for passing and that’s great.”
The weekend’s schedule for V8 SuperTourer competitors comprises two 45-minute practise sessions and a 20-minute qualifying session at 3.25 pm on Saturday. The three races on Sunday are: 15 laps at 10.30 am, 20 laps at 1:15pm and 32 laps at 4pm.
“With the change in television scheduling – V8 SuperTourer races will now screen on TV3’s CRC Motorsport the week after each round – we’re urging fans to get along and see the race action live and in-person.”
Ticket information and race schedules are available from the series website www.v8st.co.nz. More details about McIntyre and his team can be found on www.jmr.co.nz, or follow John McIntyre Racing on Facebook or ‘JMR_47’ on Twitter.