Motorsport: McIntyre wins three-way scrap for title

Photo / Geoff Ridder

No matter what happens in sport, you should never give up. That's been John McIntyre's mantra this season as the BNT V8 driver hung in there.

Despite winning more races than any other driver heading into the last round of the NZV8 championship, McIntyre has also had his fair share of bad luck. Not this weekend, though.

By winning the third race of the weekend yesterday, McIntyre became the first driver to win three New Zealand V8 championships.

"This weekend could not have been more complicated and had everything right down to the last race," said McIntyre. "There was always three of us in it. We've always had good form here [Hamilton] but so have Angus [Fogg] and Craig [Baird]. We knew if we qualified up at the front that would be the key for the weekend."

Fogg extended his points lead after winning race one on Saturday from McIntyre who started from pole. Baird drove a clinical race to finish third after starting from eighth on the grid.

The safety car was out by lap six after a multi-car incident, Fogg losing his advantage as the field bunched. He did well to hold off Andy Knight from the restart.

Race two was just as exciting, with Fogg and McIntyre battling over the opening laps until McIntyre gained the advantage and led to the finish.

Fogg's race was run by lap seven when he slowed to limp home in 21st with a busted gearbox.

"The gearbox problem put paid to any chance of winning the championship at the end of the day," said Fogg.

"But if we didn't have other things happen during the year we would have been 50 points up."

McIntyre showed his class in race three, leading from the start for an emphatic win with the rest of the field scrapping it out for the minor places.

The wet weather caused problems for many drivers, Wade Henshaw having the most bizarre moment - he ploughed into the side of a tow truck with a lap to go, bringing out the red flag.