KEY POINTS:
Hamilton driver Kayne Scott increased his lead at the midpoint of the New Zealand V8 motor racing series after two days of tense racing in Timaru.
Hard-fought wins in race one on Saturday and race two yesterday proved decisive for Scott, along with a ninth placing in the reverse grid race.
Scott's series total of 719 points through four of seven rounds extends his lead over defending champion John McIntyre from four to 31 points.
"That's nothing," a fighting McIntyre said. "Even the 150-odd point lead we have over Boothie [third-placed Andy Booth] is not much in this series with nine more races still to go in our final three rounds."
But it was Scott's weekend in Timaru, including a successful foray into the Super truck class, where he won twice.
"I haven't won a V8 race and a truck race on the same day before," Scott said.
"So that was pretty interesting."
A multiple champion in other classes as well as the V8 champion in 2005-06, Scott dominated from the moment he claimed pole position in qualifying.
In the reverse grid 20-lap final race McIntyre had the advantage of starting in front of Scott.
"Our strategy was to keep in front of Kayne to minimise the points advantage he'd gained in the first two races," said McIntyre, who finished eighth to Scott's ninth.
"It was disappointing to see Craig [Baird] and Angus [Fogg] get the jump through the field. I had a few good goes at Kayne, but we had some slower drivers in front so we just couldn't get past on this twisty circuit."
Luke Youlden won the reverse grid race, the Melbourne-based V8 Supercar driver having returned to the New Zealand series for a one-off drive in his Ford.
The gap from Booth back to fourth-placed Baird is now just 10 points.
The fifth round is at Teretonga in Invercargill this weekend.
Meanwhile, Auckland-based international Mitch Cunningham extended his points lead in the Toyota Racing Series championship with a podium finish in what was their second round of racing.
The consistent 22-year-old set the third quickest lap time in the first qualifying session and carded second, third and fourth-place finishes in the three races.
In the Porsche GT3 Challenge, Melbourne-based David Reynolds won all three races to close within 60 points of series leader Craig Baird.
- NZPA
