Aucklander Andy Booth dominated the fifth round of the New Zealand V8 motor racing championship series in Invercargill yesterday.
The Holden driver earned a race win, a second and a ninth to score more points than anyone else and take the round win at Teretonga, although Hamilton's KayneScott still holds the overall championship lead with two rounds remaining.
"It's been a long time since we've had a round win," two-time series champion Booth said.
"We came here hoping to be fast and the car's been fantastic.
"It's especially good to see us in third and Baird [Craig Baird] in fourth closing the gap to Kayne Scott and Johnny Mac [John McIntyre] at the top of the points table."
Scott leads the series with 829 points, 32 ahead of McIntyre, with Booth in third on 709, followed by Baird on 693.
Weather, mechanical failures and technical regulations created issues for the entire V8s field.
The rain-delayed first race yesterday was actually won by Nelson's McIntyre, who was excluded from the results due to a technical infringement regarding the width of his wheel track.
Second-placed Booth benefited from McIntyre's disappointment to take the maximum 75 points for a race win.
The mandrel - a pulley on the front of the engine - on Kayne Scott's Ford broke, meaning first the power steering and then the water pump failed in the first race.
Despite the increasing engine temperature, Scott managed to keep the car running long enough to cross the line and score points for 13th place.
The second race was won by Gold Coast-based expatriate New Zealander Craig Baird in a convincing manner, just minutes after he won a Porsche GT3 race.
"With just six more races in the championship, things are certainly getting closer on the leaderboard," said Baird. He was in the unique situation of starting a race with only nine competitors actually on the grid after the other 13 competitors were caught in pit lane after a late change to wet tyres as rain started to fall during the warm-up laps.
The reverse grid race was won by Auckland's Angus Fogg, the victory providing the Ford driver with some consolation after he suffered an alternator failure in the first race and failed to finish.
