KEY POINTS:
Crowned New Zealand V8 champion for the second time only six weeks ago, John McIntyre delivered an equally dominant performance as the New Zealand V8s raced on the support card for the V8 Supercars in Hamilton.
McIntyre won all three Hamilton 400 trophy races after setting pole with
a lap time more than eight-tenths of a second faster than closest rival Angus Fogg, during Friday's qualifying sessions.
This was the largest qualifying margin from any round in the recently completed championship and even more significant given the NZV8s were running on the Hamilton street circuit for the very first time.
McIntyre's position at the front of the field was never seriously threatened in any of the three races - in race two McIntyre took just five laps to get to the front - and he also earned the honour of going into the record books as the lap record holder by the end of the weekend with a time of 1:32.9823.
"I've had the perfect weekend, winning all three races and then the lap record," said McIntyre. "It was an amazing job by the team!"
Without taking anything away from McIntyre's composed and convincing hat-trick of wins and the very determined efforts of Aussie David Besnard, Clark Proctor and Paul Radisich to try and catch McIntyre, his competitors provided a variety of thrills and spills for 60,000 motorsport fans filling the Hamilton venue to capacity today.
Twenty-seven of 29 New Zealand V8 drivers finished the first rain-shortened race; 23 of 29 finished the second race and only 20 of the 29 crossed the finish line in an incident-filled race three.
These numbers perhaps indicated an increase in confidence amongst some of the competitors, or a reducing level of respect for the concrete barrier-lined street circuit, or, as in Andy Booth's situation having been unable to finish two of the three races, a demonstration of just how much damage the big concrete kerbs through the back straight chicane caused to the shock and suspension components in a number of cars.
The New Zealand V8s were competing for the glory of winning on the brand-new Hamilton circuit, earning nominal points as per their regular championship regulations.
McIntyre won the Hamilton 400 NZV8 trophy, with Paul Radisich second and Kayne Scott third.