KEY POINTS:
It was a black day yesterday for the black car of Team Kiwi Racing and its driver Kayne Scott.
The bad news began when the car stalled as Scott left the pit garage and it wouldn't restart. After giving the engine a bit more throttle, the unburnt fuel in the air box caught fire. Damage to the air trumpets meant a complete engine swap, as the set-up on the spare engine was a different brand.
As a result Scott missed most of the four practice seasons, just managing to sneak in six laps at the very last minute to post the slowest time.
"It's disappointing, really disappointing," said Scott. "It's like an own-goal really, and it's a huge body blow. It's a fresh playing field for everyone, and we were really looking forward to build up on our lap times."
Team principle David John had such high hopes at the start of the day and was looking forward to wheeling the ex-Triple Eight car out on home soil.
"A fire in the engine bay is something that doesn't happen very often and when it does you just have to cop it."
TKR are used to doing things the hard way and being on the back foot. However, it's disappointing for the mechanical gods to frown on a team whose base is in Hamilton, and their driver a local lad.
"We'll be all right," said John. "We've put a new engine in and we'll take it from there and see what Saturday brings."
The team sensibly took their time repairing the engine, ensuring nothing was rushed and everything was done right, aware that during qualifying there is no room for error.
"I was lucky enough to get a few laps around the track in the NZV8 car," said Scott. "But having said that, you always want all the laps you can get in the Supercar. We are not going to cut any corners and rush things just to get out there earlier and ruin it for [today]."
Perhaps the team can take solace in the thought that it's better to get problems out of the way before the real action starts.
New Zealand V8 champion John McIntyre set the fastest time on the brand-new Hamilton street circuit during official qualifying for the Hamilton 400 trophy race.
Clocking 1m 32.1896s, McIntyre put his Ford on pole for the first of three NZV8 races that are being run as a support event for the Australian V8 Supercar event. Lining up beside McIntyre on the front row of the grid for tomorrow's first race will Angus Fogg.
David Besnard and Paul Radisich qualified their Fords in positions three and four, while teammates Andy Booth and Paul Manuell are the best of the Holdens in positions five and six.
Recent street racing experience paid off for International Motorsport's A1 Team, NZL junior development team drivers Earl Bamber and Mitch Cunningham.
Bamber was quickest in both Toyota Racing Series qualifying sessions with Cunningham third-quickest in the first, and fourth-quickest in the second.
The TRS single-seaters were the quickest cars round the 3.4km downtown Hamilton street circuit, Bamber's best time - the 1m 24.2408s he set in the second qualifying session - half a second quicker than the best V8 Supercar time.
