Scott on top after Ruapuna Park

With three hard-fought second places, Hamilton race driver Kayne Scott has moved into the lead of the BNT V8s Championship after the third of this season’s seven rounds in Christchurch this weekend.
Racing on the tight and technical Powerbuilt Raceway at Ruapuna Park outside Christchurch, the BNT V8s’ three races had three different winners.

After Scott set the weekend’s quickest qualifying time in the Fujitsu Ford, the first race was then won by Angus Fogg in the LG Ford. Defending champion John McIntyre took the second race in the Talley’s Ford. Then Craig Baird, the multiple Porsche series champion racing his first full season in the BNT V8s, had an astonishing run in the reverse grid race, coming from 24th to take his first win in the BNT V8s Championship.

“Our car is stronger under brakes than John’s [McIntyre] here and we had more pace than him in the last race,” commented Scott who now has 533 points, just four more than McIntyre who led the series coming into this third round. “We’ve had a great car here for the last three years, John’s had a good car at Timaru where we race next and last year when we went to Manfeild, Angus [Fogg] blew us all away. So you do find that the cars are different at different circuits and we’ve got plenty of work we want to do on the Fujitsu Ford before the next round.”

Nelson-based McIntyre was happy to have the points earned from a fifth, a third and a win. “We salvaged something out of nothing really,” said the two-time and defending V8s champion. “We didn’t have the car speed here after demonstrating good speed at Taupo and Pukekohe, but I’m very happy to have the points.”

Making one of the biggest leaps up the championship points’ table, Angus Fogg was delighted to have improved from 16th to eighth overall after working hard to secure his first, fourth and eighth race places. “Now we’re scoring better finishes, so who knows where we’ll be after a couple more rounds if we can keep this up,” said the LG Ford driver. “We just didn’t have the car speed in that last reverse grid race and I watched others, like Craig Baird, just get through the field so quickly. It’s not every reverse grid race that you’d be able to do what Craig did.”

In terms of the weekend’s results, Scott took the round win, with McIntyre second, Fogg third and Andy Booth and Craig Baird fourth equal after Booth put on a very consistent performance with third, fourth and placings in the Big Ben Pies Holden. Baird’s outstanding reverse grid win in the United Video Ford added to a third and a twelfth to allow the Gold Coast-based Kiwi to improve from eighth to match Booth for the round honours.

With Scott and McIntyre leading the championship proceedings, two-time V8s champion Booth is now third overall with 416 points, 113 adrift of McIntyre. After Baird on 359 points, former champions Paul Manuell and Paul Pedersen share fifth place with 329 points each.

The BNT V8s return to the South Island in the New Year with round four at the Timaru International Raceway over the weekend of 9-11 January and round five the following weekend at Teretonga Park outside Invercargill.