KEY POINTS:
Foremost in the minds of all drivers at Ruapuna for the third round of New Zealand's national motor sport series, will be staying out of trouble and avoiding a re-run of the big mess that happened at Pukekohe.
During the second V8 race there was a spectacular eight-car
crash on the entrance to turn one. After the dust had settled, a quarter of the field were finished. It might look good on television but there were a number of bank accounts in severe pain over the past few weeks.
Surviving the carnage, two-time defending champion John McIntyre found himself in his customary place at the top of the table, narrowly ahead of Kayne Scott.
"We came into the round 19 points behind and we're leaving 19 points ahead so it was a good weekend," said McIntyre. "It's good to claw back points after Taupo where we felt we should have done a lot better. This championship is pretty tough and now Paul's [Manuell] popped up it's good for the series."
After two rounds there are five clear contenders for the title and for the first time in a while three of them are Holden drivers - Andy Booth, Manuell and Andrew Anderson - albeit behind the two Fords at the top of the heap.
Sometime Australian V8 Supercar driver Steve Owens will again replace the recovering Paul Radisich in the HPM Racing Ford.
McIntyre heads the table on 345 points followed by Scott with 332 then Booth with 253 points. Manuell and Anderson are further back separated by a point on 239 and 238 respectively.
Queensland-based Kiwi Craig Baird has won the past four New Zealand Porsche GT3 Cup titles and after three rounds look good for a fifth. But at Pukekohe Aussie teammate David Reynolds put his GT3 on pole ahead of Baird and Jono Lester held him off in the reverse grid third race.
Both Baird and Reynolds have won Australia's Carrera Cup title - Baird for the second time this year - but Reynolds defeated Baird in 2007 so he's in with a chance to knock Baird of his perch. If either of these two makes a big enough mistake, Lester could nip through and steal a round. Baird leads on 217 points from Lester on 189 and Daniel Gaunt on 154 points.
The Toyota Racing Series finally gets under way at Ruapuna this weekend and their seven-round series - including the three-race international as a series within a series - should provide ample entertainment.
There's no defending champion as Andy Knight is now trying his hand in the taxis of the BNT NZV8s, so the championship is wide open.
At stake this weekend is the Wigram Cup - and an important points boost for the winning driver. In 2007-2008, champion Andy Knight took the opening weekend points and created a momentum that forced the field to chase him down through the months that followed.
Last year's championship went down to the final corner of the last race between Knight and Earl Bamber, who has moved on to bigger things including A1GP.
This year the series has attracted overseas interest from Australia, the UK and Ireland whose drivers will be wheel-to-wheel with a fresh crop of aspiring young racers moving up from Formula Ford. Adding another layer of interest will be more experienced drivers returning to have another tilt at winning the TRS.
The meeting also includes the New Zealand Production Racing Championship, the MTA Formula Fords and the Mini Challenge.
