KEY POINTS:
Matt Halliday will be in the driver's seat for New Zealand in the next round of the A1GP in Durban, South Africa, on Sunday week.
A1 Team NZ had pencilled in Jonny Reid to continue behind the wheel but the team's brains trust wants to give Halliday an opportunity on the tight street circuit.
A1 Team NZ chairman Colin Giltrap said while Reid had done a fantastic job in the past three meetings, Halliday was excited about re-acquainting himself with the waterfront course in Durban.
"Matt drove in South Africa last season, scoring a fourth in the feature race and he's had more experience than Jonny in the demands of street circuit racing," Giltrap said.
"Matt hasn't been in the car since the last street race in Beijing in round three but he's been superb supporting Jonny and the team and deserves this opportunity."
Auckland V8 driver Angus Fogg produced his best performance so far this season, winning race one of the NZ V8s at Feilding's Manfeild circuit yesterday.
He started the 12-lap race on the second row, got around the outside of series leader John McIntyre at the first corner and started his pursuit of pole setter Kane Scott in the Commodore.
By the second lap, Fogg literally scrapped past Scott, knocking off a wing mirror as he took the lead.
"Once I got in front, it was easy to just drive the right lines and let the others scrap behind me," Fogg said. "The track was very slippery but I was able to stay off the oil on the circuit."
Fogg finished four seconds ahead of Scott, with Queensland's David Besnard third.
McIntyre finished fourth but has lodged an inquiry with race stewards over Besnard's passing manoeuvre on the sixth lap.
"He hit me very hard as he tried to pass me," McIntyre said. "We'll see what the race stewards say."
Besnard will start the second race today from pole position, sharing the front row with Fogg.
McIntyre still leads the championship provisionally with 547 points, with Scott second on 533.
In the day's other feature race, 17-year-old Auckland schoolboy Shane Van Gisbergen won the first heat of the final round of the International Toyota Racing series.
Going into the race, he was tied with reigning champion Daniel Gaunt, who finished third. Christchurch driver Andy Knight was second.
The international leg of the Toyota Racing Series is raced over three rounds, with the final two races at Manfeild today. Van Gisbergen has a 15-point lead over Gaunt.
Australia's most successful female racing driver Leanne Tander made her Toyota Racing Series debut at Manfeild yesterday but crashed out of the opening heat with two laps remaining.
Tander, the wife of V8 Supercar driver Garth Tander, is fourth in the Australian Formula 3 Championship.
In the first heat of the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge, A1GP driver Halliday was too strong for the rest, beating home Fabian Coulthard and Craig Baird.
