KEY POINTS:
New Zealand V8 champion John McIntyre left the Hamilton400 race weekend having emulated Garth Tander in the main game, with three from three leaving his challengers scratching their heads.
McIntyre's dominance was complete, never really being challenged, and the rest of the field will spend the off-season trying
to figure out how to stop him from winning a third title.
The first NZV8 race, as one of the support races for the third round of the V8 Supercar championships, saw the arrival of the predicted rain.
As wipers came on, cars began to go off the circuit. The snake-like chicane proved to be a handful for a number of the cars with Connel McLaren having the worst moment when his car launched itself into the air.
McIntyre showed his class to take the win followed by Paul Radisich and David Besnard. Race two was one of the best NZ V8 races in the past year. It all kicked off when McIntyre hunted down Besnard from fifth on the grid, and Clark Proctor, Kayne Scott and Angus Fogg joined the fray.
Besnard retired from the fight when his front right went flat and after the dust had settled McIntyre took another win with Fogg close behind and Proctor making a return to the podium.
Race three was much the same, with McIntyre disappearing into the sunset only for the pack to catch up again under a yellow. On the restart after the safety car left the circuit, McIntyre held off Radisich and Scott.
"The perfect weekend," said McIntyre. "Winning all three races and getting the lap record is good for all the team, an amazing job."
Craig Baird put the Porsche GT3 field to the sword, yet again.
After putting his car on pole for race one, Aussie Carrera Cup champion David Reynolds was best-placed to have a go at Baird but the anticipated scrap fizzled out before the race even started, when his car lunched his gearbox on the warm up lap.
In his absence Baird established a lead he would never lose from Jono Lester and Jody Vincent.
In the second race the song remained the same as Baird cleared out leaving the rest to fight it out. Reynolds had to start from the rear of the field and blasted his way through the pack to finish third behind Vincent. Even the reverse top-six grid didn't hinder Baird. Starting from sixth, Baird had climbed to second halfway through the first lap. Needless to say, Baird went on to win from Jody Vincent and Daniel Gaunt.
In the TRS, Earl Bamber made the most of the weekend by winning everything there was for the Toyotas, two poles and two race wins. Bamber made the most of sitting on pole to jump out to early leads in both races. Australian Nathan Antunes chased Bamber hard in race one until suspension damage put paid to his challenge. Mitch Cunningham, back home from his Indy Lites challenge in America, finished second.
In race two, Cunningham put his car into the wall and literally broke the Toyota in two, the rear of the car ended up in front of the nose cone. On the restart Bamber again jumped out to a lead and wasn't headed, picking his second win in front of Nick Jordan and Antunes.
True to form, the Minis were the only class to have different winners in their two races - Courtney Letica in race one and series champion Brent Collins in race two.
