The 2010/2011 edition of the BNT V8s Championship has had some exciting racing from its beginning last November and as drivers head into the final round at Hamilton next weekend, the title will be decided in what will be a crowd pleasing  three-way street fight.

Once again the V8 category will be a major support act to the Australian V8 Supercars contesting the ITM 400 but this year features the final  round of New Zealand’s premier motor racing championship rather than a stand-alone trophy outing. Frankly, it would be hard to find a better script with three of the country’s top drivers covered by a mere 44 points with a total of 225 points to be raced for over the weekend.

The driver in the box seat is Auckland’s Angus Fogg (LG / Newstalk ZB Falcon) who has all but led the points table from Round 1 and arrives at Hamilton with a slender lead of just 32 points. The popular “Foggy” has had more than his share of ups and downs but has kept the important points tally ticking over through consistency which has been his main strategy throughout the season.

The man many favour to top the points at the right time – namely at the end of the final race – is Hamilton’s international racing star Craig Baird whose United Video Falcon actually led the points table for a week between Rounds 3 and 4. The master tactician will be stalking Fogg all weekend and with immense international experience in his favour could be the man to watch when the lights go out for Saturday’s opening race.

Never to be discounted but with a tougher task ahead is Nelson driver John McIntyre (Blackwoods Paykels Protector Safety Falcon) who must gain a 44 point advantage to overhaul the leader and a 12 point advantage to tip Baird out of the runner-up spot. Considering his superb performances on street circuits (in BNT V8s and V8 Supercars) together with the fact he has won twice as many races this season as any other driver (six wins to Fogg’s three) it is a target “Johnny Mac” will be well and truly capable of achieving. (more…)

NZV8 race driver John McIntyre has lost his appeal with MotorSport New Zealand against being disqualified from race one at round two of the BNT V8s Championship. This leaves McIntyre in fourth position with 440 championship points in the current standings.

The two-time NZV8 champion says he simply has to put the decision behind him and look forward.

With round four of the NZV8 series running this weekend (22 and 23 January) at the well-supported South Canterbury circuit, Timaru International Motor Raceway, McIntyre says he’ll be drawing on his strong form to date to continue to push hard towards the ultimate goal — his third championship title.

“Of course we’re disappointed the appeal decision did not go our way — we would not have lodged the appeal if we didn’t think we had a very good case to get the disqualification rescinded — but all you can do is put that behind you and focus on this weekend’s racing,” said the Nelson-based driver.

The Timaru meeting marks the championship’s midway point and John McIntyre Racing aims to continue their strong form at what is sure to be one of the best-attended NZV8 meetings of the season.

“The fact is JMR has won four of the nine races completed to date — we’re the only team to win more than one race so far in this 2010/11 BNT V8s Championship season,” said McIntyre as the team prepared for three more intense races.

“We have all seen how quickly fortunes can change in this series, just like virtually any form of motorsport. We simply remain focused on delivering another top class performance this weekend in South Canterbury.”

(more…)

On the first episode of the new NZV8 TV season we check out the upcoming BNT NZV8 series test day where presenter Morice McMillin a devout drag racer finds out about turning corners. We take a ride with Frank Kereopa in his awesome big block 1965 Impala as seen in the current issue of NZV8. And for a change of pace we go cruising with the Cadillac Club of New Zealand.

NZV8 TV is on at 2:30 pm, Sunday 7th of November on TV1. It will run each week at the same time so check it out.

Also watch this week for your chance to win a 3D LG TV and other prizes. Click here to find out more.

Click here to view profiles of this season’s presenters.

To view the first epsiode of NZV8 TV click on the video boxes below, and check back to watch all the episodes online.

Part 1

Part 2

Another strong performance from John McIntyre Racing in the final round of the BNT V8 Championship raced in Taupo last weekend saw the team secure second place for the season.

“I’m very, very happy,” says John McIntyre. “With a third round win for the season, our fourth pole, and two more race wins to bring our total to seven race wins from the season’s 18 races, I think it’s fair to say the team has made an outstanding recovery after a disaster in Timaru where we didn’t earn any points for an entire round.”

McIntyre congratulates Craig Baird on his championship win. “We’ve had some of the best racing we’ve ever had in this series against Craig. Congratulations to him and the United Video team on their win, and for taking out the Porsche title the same day.”

“Last year, I was extremely disappointed to get second in this series. This year, I’ve accepted second place with a lot more grace, because the whole JMR team did such a great job. We never gave up, we were competitive right up until the last chequered flag, and we earned this second place so we’re going to celebrate it!”

Qualifying for the Taupo round, the sixth and final round of the 2009-10 NZV8 championship season saw McIntyre set the quickest time in the first two qualifying sessions and head out last during the top ten shootout. He had Baird’s time of 1:35.498 to beat, and he did — by just 0.026 seconds — to take his fourth pole position in six rounds, a feat that hasn’t been achieved by any other driver in this series to the best of the team’s knowledge.

McIntyre took full advantage of starting from pole position to win the first two ten lap races and score his sixth and seventh race victories for the season. “That second race was the 27th race victory for John McIntyre Racing in four seasons,” says a proud McIntyre, who know after the second race that Baird had an insurmountable points’ lead and couldn’t be beaten for the championship title.

The championship’s last race, a 20-lapper, full reverse grid, saw McIntyre and Baird line up on the very back row together. With competitors further up the field slewing off the circuit in all directions and gravel and dust being flung up in great, view-restricting clouds, it took all of Baird’s considerable ability to make his way cleanly through the pack. McIntyre followed, keeping as close as possible behind him. On the third lap, Eddie Bell got turned by another competitor right in front of McIntyre.¨¨“I had nowhere to go and hit Eddie’s car dead in the side. It was hard to know what was damaged so I came round to the pits pretty slowly. There was a fair bit of damage, but not enough to stop us returning to the race at full speed. The car wasn’t 100%, but we went on to get the fastest lap of the race after that and managed to drive from the back of the field again into sixth place which was an outstanding recovery and hugely satisfying.”

McIntyre’s two race wins and a sixth place earned him the round win, his third of the season.

“You look at our stats and we’ve had a great season, marred by the Timaru crash. We couldn’t win the championship — that’s how it goes, but I’m enormously proud of how the team bounced back. The whole team — headed by Craig Field from Hastings — put in a phenomenal effort.”

John McIntyre Racing heads to the streets of Hamilton in April where the NZV8s will again be a key support class for the Australian V8 Supercars contesting the ITM 400.

Pukekohe’s own BNT V8 Championship driver Dean Perkins is itching to get back on his home track for this weekend’s round of the series and is eager to improve on his fifth overall achieved when the big V8’s last raced at the circuit in November.

“Pukekohe is traditionally a happy hunting ground for me and the GT Racing team and we’d love to finish off the championship season with a podium finish,” said Dean Perkins. “I finished with two 3rd placings and a 14th when we were here in round two and was literally a handful of points away from spraying the champagne. Unfortunately there were a few too many competitors in front of us in the final reverse grid race and I couldn’t quite make up enough places. Fingers crossed a few things fall our way this time and we can wrap up the points scoring season in style.”

The #75 Falcon was in reasonable condition following a wet and wild round six at Manfeild, meaning the GT Racing crew can concentrate on fine-tuning some critical aspects of the car in an effort to extract some additional speed.

“Home advantage certainly plays a part in our success at Pukekohe, but I simply love the fast nature of the circuit,” said Mr Perkins. “It rewards drivers who are prepared to push things along and hang out a bit wider at critical parts of the track. I’m going to be driving as fast as I can and am hoping to finish on a winning note for GT Racing fans around the country.”

The round gets underway on Friday March 13 with two test sessions followed on Saturday March 14 by qualifying and the first race. The second and third V8 races are scheduled to run on Sunday March 15, with the final outing being a 20-lap reverse grid battle featuring a rolling start.

The team at the GT Racing pit will be giving away free posters all weekend and as an added bonus will also be running a hot-lap session at the Pukekohe track on March 16.

Each package costs $295 and includes three hot-laps with Dean in a race-ready Ford Falcon V8. This is the final GT Racing hot-laps day scheduled for the immediate future and bookings can be made by contacting the hot-laps manager on 0800 888 973.

One of the fastest competitors in the New Zealand V8s class over the past two seasons, Australian David Besnard has been confirmed to drive one of the Team SCG Racing Fords at Taupo’s opening round of the 2008-09 BNT V8s Championship over the weekend of 3-5 October.

The team’s operations manager Paul Fallon says: “Late on Friday afternoon (26 September) we secured a sponsorship deal that sees David Besnard back in a Team SCG Racing Ford for the BNT V8s in Taupo, alongside our other driver, rookie Dale Williams. We hope to confirm Besnard’s entry for the full seven round championship shortly.

“Local businesses have seen the effort we’ve made to try and get David in the car for his second season with the team and they’ve rallied together to make it work for this weekend’s opening round, and hopefully the rest of the season. Taupo’s Pak ‘N’ Save and McDonald’s have been instrumental in getting funding together for the team, and along with other local businesses, we’ve pulled a package together.

Besnard joins a BNT V8s field now comprising 28 entrants. Due to several competitors being unable to confirm their entries in the V8s Development Series, this class has been cancelled for the Taupo round and the remaining entrant, Julia Huzziff, joins the BNT V8s class.

At Taupo’s Fujitsu 200 event, official testing sessions take place on Friday 3 October with the BNT V8s three-part qualifying programme running late morning on Saturday 4 October. The BNT V8s have their first race — 12 laps — on Saturday afternoon with a 16-lap race in the morning of Sunday 5 October and a 20-lap reverse grid race on Sunday afternoon, all with rolling starts.

With two of the seven rounds of the BNT V8s Championship completed, it’s easy to see from an analysis of race statistics why former V8s champions John McIntyre and Kayne Scott head the points’ table.

McIntyre has scored a top ten place in every single one of the six races completed to date and three of these finishes in the Squawking Magpie Wines Ford were podium or top three places, giving ‘Johnny Mac’ a total of 345 points. And while Scott has only five top ten finishes, two of these were outright victories giving the Fujitsu Ford driver the maximum of 75 points for each race. Scott’s total is 332, just 13 adrift of McIntyre.

Matching Scott with five top ten finishes so far this season are Andrew Anderson in the ITM Holden and Michael Bristow in the Tex Onsite Ford. Anderson is one of the most experienced competitors in the BNT V8s field, this being his ninth consecutive season in the class, while Bristow is youngest driver this season at only 21 years of age.

When you have competitors of the sheer calibre and experience of United Video Ford driver Craig Baird holding eighth place in the BNT V8s after two rounds, the intensity of this season’s competition is obvious. Add in the fact there have been five race winners — Scott twice, Paul Radisich, Angus Fogg, John McIntyre and Paul Manuell — in just six races, and it’s obviously tough at the front of the BNT V8s field.

Holdens outnumber Fords in the top five for the first time in several seasons with the three Holdens prepared by AV8 Motorsport taking positions three, four and five on the points’ table. In third, former champion Andy Booth has four top ten finishes to his credit, two being thirds helping his points’ tally. Manuell leapt into fourth place after two top finishes at Pukekohe, while Anderson’s very consistent three fourth places has the ITM Holden driver hankering for a podium finish at the next round.

McIntyre and Manuell have each earned the honour of pole position while McIntyre has been the only driver to set a new lap record so far this season at the opening round in Taupo in October.
2008-09 BNT V8s Championship calendar
Round 1 (Fujitsu 200), Taupo Motorsport Park, 3-5 October 2008
Round 2, Pukekohe Park, 7-9 November 2008
Round 3, Powerbuilt Tools International Raceway (Christchurch), 28-30 November 2008
Round 4, Timaru International Motor Raceway, 9-11 January 2009
Round 5, Teretonga Park (Invercargill), 16-18 January 2009
Round 6, Manfeild Park (Fielding), 27 February – 1 March 2009
Round 7, Pukekohe Park, 13-15 March 2009

Photo courtesy of SportProMedia