Motorsport: McIntyre accelerates title hunt

Other drivers are wondering what makes John McIntyre's V8 so blisteringly fast. Photo / Supplied

John McIntyre has grabbed the bull by the horns in his effort to reclaim the title Kayne Scott snatched from him last season.

As the cars head to Timaru's Levels circuit this weekend for round four, the halfway point of the 2009-10 New Zealand BNT V8s series, rival drivers are scratching their heads as to why McIntyre has been consistently faster than the rest of the field.

He's notched up five wins from nine races and three consecutive poles since the first round at Pukekohe in November.

Last weekend's race win at Teretonga was the team's 25th and McIntyre's 46th in the class.

"The car is clearly better than last year and in the first two rounds the car was nearly perfect straight out of the gate," said McIntyre.

"Last weekend we were a little off, but made a small change and it transformed the car.

"I've learned a lot lately and I'm now pushing the car as hard as I can and not being too conservative both with the car and my driving.

"I'd have to say I'm in the form of my life lately and it would be fair to say I'm driving the best I ever have."

The man snapping at his heels, Craig Baird, is pressing McIntyre as hard as he can and in Invercargill the two drivers had the closest finish in the V8 championship.

McIntyre just managed to hold Baird off by a mere 0.036 of a second.

The more technical Levels circuit may play into Baird's hands this weekend as he tries to reduce the 71-point lead McIntyre has.

Defending champion Kayne Scott has struggled to get his car working as he wants, but he is picking up the points at each round and sits third on the table 79 points behind Baird.

Although resigned to the fact his car isn't as quick as McIntyre's, Scott will be giving it his all and remember, last season's title wasn't decided until the last race at the last round.

"We haven't had outright speed at any of the rounds this year," said Scott.

"But at each round we've managed to finish in the top three or four cars. We've just got to make the best of what we've got and we'll just press on.

"Last year we won the round at Levels despite not having the fastest car. It'll be an interesting round but John's [McIntyre] been blisteringly fast this year but as always we'll give it our best shot."

Angus Fogg appears to have put his mechanical demons so far behind him that he set the fastest lap times for all three races in round three and finished on the podium.

He'll be looking to improve on his sixth place in the championship this weekend.

Two newcomers to the V8 series, Eddie Bell and Andy Knight, continue to prove they can mix it with the more established drivers and are fourth and eighth respectively.

The best of the Holdens remains Andy Booth, nestled in fifth.

Baird has long had the wood on all the others in the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge but he's getting a bit of a shake-up this season.

Aussie V8 Supercar driver David Reynolds is pushing hard to close the gap and despite missing the first round, has climbed to fifth on the table.

He won the second and third rounds and has hopes of emulating these results in Timaru.

Baird still has a healthy 86-point lead from Matt Halliday and Daniel Gaunt a further 41 points back.

The first round of the Toyota Racing Series threw up three different winners.

Young Mitch Evans won on his debut in the class, Sten Pentus took out the feature event and Lucas Foresti won the third race.

Pentus leads the race for the title with 196 points from Evans, 187 points, and Jilesen, 180 points.

Over the weekend the Formula Fords, Production class, Minis and Suzuki Swifts will continue their respective clashes for honours.

BNT V8 points:

John McIntyre, Falcon, 553 1, Craig Baird, Falcon, 482 2, Kayne Scott, Falcon, 406 3, Eddie Bell, Falcon, 393 4.

Andy Booth, Commodore, 383 5, Angus Fogg, Falcon, 381 6, Tim Edgell, Falcon, 368 7, Andy Knight, Falcon, 358 8.