Motorsport: Holden snatches 'Ford benefit'

Andy Booth reckons Pukekohe is a Ford track and the New Zealand V8 series may be a Ford benefit, but he still won the first round in his Holden at Pukekohe yesterday.

The 31-year-old Aucklander, champion for the past two years, was fourth in the first race and third in the next two and that was good enough to finish ahead of John McIntyre, who won two races in his Ford, and another Holden driver, Kayne Scott.

But the safety car shared the spotlight in the controversy whipped up by new regulations, old tyres and the usual rivalry kindled in these Ford-Holden battles.

McIntyre clearly had the speed and his victories in the first and third races were convincing and he was leading when the safety car intervened in the second race. When racing resumed he gunned his car up to 195km/h, forgetting that the new regulation restricts cars to 50-70km/h until they have passed the start-finish line on the first new lap.

The drive-through penalty put him out of contention and Pukekohe driver Dean Perkins won his first race in the V8 championship ahead of Paul Pedersen and Booth.

The third race saw Pedersen and Perkins clash, with Pedersen dropping back through the field, while McIntyre and Mark Pedersen surged ahead. But another safety car intervention reduced the race to a one-lap sprint. McIntyre held his lead but Mark Pedersen was a little slow and Booth squeezed inside him into the first corner.

Christchurch driver Matthew Hamilton won two of the three Toyota races but faded from the third that was won by Aucklander Daniel Gaunt, who won the round. US-based Englishman Jay Howard had three podium finishes and will clearly be a force during the season.

One of the outstanding performances came in the Formula Fords where 16-year-old Shane Van Gisbergen won all three races despite strong competition from the experienced Simon Gamble and Nelson Hartley.

Van Gisbergen, a pupil at St Kentigern College, is in his first season of Fords after graduating from karts and Formula First.

Fabian Coulthard dominated the Porsche GT3 races, with only Craig Baird getting close. When Baird made a mistake in the last race Rick Armstrong drove heroically to second place, almost 800 metres behind Coulthard.

The next round is at Ruapuna.