Scott leads as BNT V8s head for penultimate round at Manfeild

Hamilton race driver Kayne Scott holds a narrow 32 point lead over defending V8 champion John McIntyre, from Nelson, as 23 V8 competitors line up for the sixth round of the BNT V8s Championship at Manfeild on the weekend of 28 February and 1 March.

The Manfeild motor race meeting, the Fujitsu 200, is the penultimate round of the 2008-09 BNT V8s Championship with Scott having just six more races – three at Manfeild and three at the Pukekohe finale just a fortnight later – to secure the BNT V8s championship title for his second time.

Pre-event preparation of Scott’s Fujitsu Ford V8 by Mark Petch Motorsport will undoubtedly be extremely thorough as the ultra-professional team looks for every possible tweak to give Scott an advantage over archrival McIntyre.

However, with just 32 points keeping him from the top of the championship points’ table, McIntyre will be seeking every advantage of his own as his equally-professional and skilled Hastings-based team completes preparation on the John McIntyre Racing Ford.

The driver known as ‘Johnny Mac’ had a very successful test day three weeks out from Manfeild. “We’re the only team with Manfeild as our nominated test circuit,” said two-time V8 champion. “We worked on our brake package and tested the new Advanti alloy wheels recently made available to our class. They performed well.

“We also got plenty of running in damp conditions to further tune our wet set-up and fitted a new ice box for my helmet cooling system, so we’ve done a fair bit of preparation for hot or wet conditions. It’s great to get mileage at Manfeild so close to the round as we know that qualifying will be the key to the weekend and ultimately the championship. It’s a simple plan for the rest of the season – finish in front of Kayne for the next six races.”

McIntyre took a short break in his race preparation to marry long-time partner Lisa the weekend before Manfeild.

While Scott and McIntyre have the jump on the rest of the field with 829 and 797 points respectively, third-placed and top Holden driver Andy Booth and the fast-improving fourth-placed Craig Baird are both poised to take advantage of any errors from the leading duo. Booth is 123 points behind McIntyre, a gap that’s not insurmountable when each race win is worth 75 points.

The Auckland-based driver says the AV8 Motorsport team which runs both the #23 Big Ben Pies Commodore and the #15 Orix Commodore of fifth-placed team-mate Paul Manuell has been busy in recent weeks refreshing both Holden V8 engines.

“Both these engines have run the entire season to date,” says Booth, a two-time champion in this class. “In fact the engine in #23 still had the control seals on from last year’s Hamilton 400 support race! So both Paul and I are looking forward to stronger engines for the next two rounds. We’re also looking forward to continuing the successful direction we took with car set-up at Teretonga [where Booth won the round] to help further close the gap to the leaders.”

Gold Coast-based expat Craig Baird is racing in his first full BNT V8s season this year, although the many-time race champion can’t exactly be classed a rookie. Stepping in the United Video Ford of his brother-in-law and three-time V8 champion Mark Pedersen, who’s now a TV commentator for the series, Baird took a couple of race meetings to get to grips with the New Zealand-spec V8 which is very different to the Porsche GT3 Cup cars and V8 Supercars he’s raced with great success for several years. But by the time the series went south to Christchurch in November, Baird was obviously happier with the Ford’s performance. In nine races, he had two wins, three fourths and two twelfths to currently have a total of 691 points, just 15 behind Booth.

“It’s fun in these cars,” says Baird about the BNT V8s. “Everyone has different advantages in different parts of each circuit. Some are better under brakes, some have better acceleration. That makes for very enjoyable racing.”

Holding a strong sixth place behind Paul Manuell in the Orix Holden is Angus Fogg. In his first season with his own race team, Fogg, who was last year’s championship runner-up, says he’s is looking forward to racing at Manfeild.

“It’s my favourite New Zealand circuit and I’ve traditionally done very well there, last year qualifying on pole and winning two races and the round. In 2007 I also won the first two races and set the lap record with a time of 1:13.165,” says the North Shore-based driver.

Fogg says since racing at Teretonga, over and above the usual maintenance programme, the LG Falcon has received a new differential unit. “The brake cooling system has been modified and updated and we’ll also sport the new Advanti wheels. The engine’s been back on the dyno and we’re delighted with the performance gains made.”

With six weeks since the BNT V8s last raced at Teretonga, Fogg has been keeping race-fit, competing at the Skope Classic at Ruapuna Park on 6-8 February and the Southern Speedfest at Teretonga Park on 20-22 February in a classic racing Mini, a class in which he’s has had great success in the past.

The Manfeild BNT V8s field sees the return of Wellington driver Dave Stewart and Pukekohe driver Dean Perkins. Australian Luke Youlden is also entered to drive the Christchurch Autotek-prepared Ford he ran last year.

Perkins’ long-time sponsor GT Radial has elected to participate in limited rounds this season due to responsibilities associated with the current economic crisis.

“We decided to race in North Island rounds only as it was the appropriate way to manage our business and motorsport programme through the present situation,” says Perry Scarfe of GT Radial tyres importer Tyres4U New Zealand. “We’re itching to get the GT Radial car back in front of our fans. We think we’ve got a super competitive package straight out of the box as the car is race-ready following our last successful outing at Pukekohe in November.”

The Manfeild Fujitsu 200 meeting sees the BNT V8s run in official test sessions on Friday 27 February. The three-part qualifying programme starts at 1pm on Saturday 28 February. 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 4pm. A 16-lap race starts at 11:10am on Sunday 11 January and a 20-lap reverse grid race at 3:00pm, all with rolling starts.

A special autograph signing session for the BNT V8s is being hosted by BP Connect on Rangitikei Street in Palmerston North on Friday night from 7 to 7:30pm. Listen out for more details on the Manawatu frequencies of Radio Hauraki, Classic Hits and ZM. BP will be giving away tickets to the race meeting, coffee and BP fuel vouchers.

The Fujitsu 200 premier motor race meeting also includes the New Zealand Grand Prix being contested by the Toyota Racing Series, and the 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.

ENDS/

BNT V8s Championship – Points after Round 5

Position, driver, hometown, car, championship points

1, Kayne Scott, Hamilton, Ford Falcon, 829

2, John McIntyre, Nelson, Ford Falcon, 797

3, Andy Booth, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 706

4, Craig Baird, Gold Coast, Ford Falcon, 691

5, Paul Manuell, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 581

6, Angus Fogg, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 570

7, Paul Pedersen, Taupo, Ford Falcon, 550

8, Eddie Bell, Christchurch, Ford Falcon, 500

9, Andrew Anderson, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 487

10, Michael Bristow, Pukekohe, Ford Falcon, 453

11, Adam Brook, Christchurch, Ford Falcon, 444

12, Tim Edgell, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 420

13, John Penny, Taupo, Holden Commodore, 418

14, Dale Williams, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 406

15, Nick Ross, Cambridge, Holden Commodore, 339

16, Inky Tulloch, Gore, Ford Falcon, 327

17, Andrew Porter, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 297

18, Simon Richards, Hamilton, Ford Falcon, 286

19, Andy Knight, Christchurch, Ford Falcon, 234

20, John Hepburn, Timaru, Holden Commodore, 219

21, Chris Adams, Mosgiel, Holden Commodore, 197

22, Paul Radisich, Melbourne, Ford Falcon, 181

23, Alan McCarrison, Auckland, Ford Falcon, 171

24, Steve Owen, Melbourne, Ford Falcon, 144

25, Boyd Norwood, Palmerston North, Ford Falcon, 114

26, Luke Youlden, Melbourne, Ford Falcon, 102

27, David Besnard, Gold Coast, Ford Falcon, 88

28, Mack Peach, Bombay, Ford Falcon, 74

29, David Hopper, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 67

30, Cam Hardy, Hamilton, Holden Commodore, 54

31, Julia Huzziff, Auckland, Holden Commodore, 48

32, Dave Stewart*, Wellington, Holden Commodore, 44

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