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The defending champion, Nelson-based John McIntyre, came through three V8 Supercar-style qualifying sessions to take pole position for the opening weekend of the NZ Truth V8s Championship at Pukekohe, then made it a winning start-to-finish performance in the first race.
The NZ Truth V8s Championship opened at Pukekohe this weekend with the Fujitsu 200 event contested by a talent-filled field of 33 V8s, comprising 20 Fords and 12 Holdens. New qualifying rules see the whole field complete an initial 20 minute qualifying session, then the top 20 go through to a 15 minute session. Only the top ten contest a final 15 minute session to determine the final starting grid.
With a time of 1:01.088 in the last session, McIntyre piloted his BP Ultimate Ford around the Pukekohe circuit over 0.3 of a second faster than closest rival Angus Fogg in the Havoline Ford. But demonstrating just how close this NZ Truth V8s series is, only 0.5 of a second then separated the times of remaining top eight qualifiers.
Behind McIntyre and Fogg, two-time champion Andy Booth flew the Holden flag with a vengeance to take third slot. Former two-time world touring car champion Paul Radisich, in his first full New Zealand racing championship for many years, bought the HPM Racing Ford into the fourth fastest slot. And Kayne Scott, the 2005-06 V8 champion, bought his brand-new Fujitsu Ford into fifth place on the starting grid.
The season’s opening race, of 14 laps, had a fierce pace with Booth commenting, “Everyone was giving it all they had; the pace was hot!”
McIntyre led from start to finish, never looking seriously threatened by Booth who deftly bought his Tasman Motorsport Holden to the inside and past Fogg’s Havoline Ford in the very first corner of the race to snatch second place and hold it to the finish. Fogg, following by Radisich and Scott, completed the top five places.
V8 newcomer, but former Super Truck champion Andrew Porter had an eventful second lap, powering off onto the grass as the field came around Pukekohe’s sweeping first corner and, after a few anxious moments, did a fine job to get the Hyundai Construction Ford under control. He retired soon after. Leading Australian drivers David Besnard in the new Team SCG Ford had a coming together with Cameron McLean at the hairpin, with Besnard later coping a drive-through penalty, leaving the pair to finish at the back of the field.
Orix Racing’s Paul Manuell improved from his tenth qualifying place to take sixth, Powerbuilt Ford driver Luke Youlden also improved to take seventh with Dean Perkins, Clark Proctor and Andrew Anderson rounding out a talent-packed top ten.
Naturally delighted to achieve his goal of scoring maximum points in the NZ Truth V8s’ first race, McIntyre said he only intended to do enough in the first two qualifying sessions to get through to the next sector, conscious of conserving the allocated Dunlop tyres as much as possible.
“We then had a plan for some changes to the car which we felt would make it faster for the final top ten shoot-out,” said McIntyre. “In fact, we were fastest in the first two sessions which was great, and then we made those changes and the car was even faster which shows that our off-season plans to develop a better qualifying process have worked. It was great team work all round.”
McIntyre, Booth and Fogg agreed that the new qualifying format worked well. “It involves the team more and we really enjoyed keeping an eye on what everyone else was doing to assess whether we needed to shoot out and put in a faster lap,” said Fogg.
As part of the Fujitsu 200 event at Pukekohe this weekend, the NZ Truth V8s have two further races on Sunday with the third of those races a full reverse grid.
More information about the NZ Truth V8s Championship can found on www.nzv8s.co.nz.
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