Pitstop: Besnard in for Bairdin V8 Championship

Multiple New Zealand touring car champion Craig Baird, who had been due to take over from John McIntyre in the Hydraulink Ford for the year V8 championship this year, has had to step aside because of another commitment.

He will be replaced by Australian V8 Supercar driver David Besnard, Baird's WPS teammate in last year's Supercar season.

McIntyre, who led the V8 championship until the final round when he lost points for an illegal engine, will drive for his own Hawkes Bay-based team this season.

Another Australian with Supercar experience, Luke Youlden, will return for a second season with the Christchurch-based Powerbuilt team. He finished seventh last season.

WEST A THREAT TO MASON AS RALLY HEADS EAST

Masterton driver Richard Mason takes a 33-point lead into the fourth round of the national rally championship in Hawkes Bay this weekend.

Sam Murray from Palmerston North is second, and Emma Gilmour from Dunedin is third. All drive Subarus.

The biggest threat to Mason is likely to come from Auckland's Chris West, who won the last round in Northland, but lies eighth in the championship after losing points for a technical infringement.

The event starts and finishes in Napier and ventures as far north as Wairoa.

FUEL PUMP FAILS WITH FINISH LINE IN SIGHT

Richard Mason was forced to retire from the second round of the Chinese championship when the fuel pump on his Subaru Impreza failed - after the final special stage.

Mason led comfortably after winning four of the five stages on the first day but lost the advantage when water was found in his fuel the next morning. He clawed his way back only for the pump to fail in sight of the finish.

HALLIDAY SECOND AFTER RECORDING FASTEST LAPS

New Zealand A1GP driver Matt Halliday has finished second in the Indonesian round of the Formula Renault V6 Asia championship.

He was fourth in the first race and runner-up in the second and recorded the fastest laps in both races.

KIWIS AMONG WINNERS IN QUEENSLAND

Kiwis Mark Porter and Kayne Scott both won races at the Queensland round of the second-level V8 championship. Porter lies third in the championship and Scott eighth.

BRIT'S ONE-EYED VIEW OF INDIANAPOLIS INCIDENT

Perceptions of "racing incidents" that sideline drivers can be coloured by who's telling whom.

The British magazine Autosport, which waves the Union Jack aggressively, quotes Englishman Jay Howard on a clash with Kiwi Wade Cunningham at Indianapolis: "That little weasel slashed my tyre with his front wing.

"If that's the only way he's going to get past me, then that's fine. Two can play at that game." Neither driver finished the Indy Pro race.

Last weekend in Milwaukee Cunningham qualified quickest, set the fastest race lap and led 98 of the 100 laps - only to be pipped by Brazilian Jaime Camara after a last-minute re-start. Howard was seventh.

TEEN MIXES IT WITH MOTOCROSS BIG BOYS

Taupo teenager Brad Groombridge celebrated his move out of the junior ranks when he picked up his first senior national motocross title, winning the under-300cc four-stroke class at the New Zealand TT Championships near Taumarunui.

He is still classed as a junior overseas and will compete at the world junior championships in Finland next month. He turns 16 just before the event.