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KEY POINTS:
Two-time defending NZV8 champion John McIntyre is not overly bothered one of his arch rivals, Kayne Scott, has a 32-point advantage going into race one today at Manfeild Park.
"We're the only team with Manfeild as our nominated test circuit," said McIntyre. "We worked on our brake package and tested the new alloy wheels recently made available to our class. They performed well."
Scott, himself a former champion, has taken the chequered flag four times - more than any other driver this season - but McIntyre says Scott's 32-point lead is hardly a safe buffer with six more races to run.
McIntyre also has a strong series record, finishing in the top 10 in all but one of the 15 races to date.
"We got plenty of running in damp conditions to further tune our wet set-up and it's great to get mileage at Manfeild so close to the round. We know that qualifying will be the key to the weekend and ultimately the championship.
"It's a simple plan for the rest of the season - finish in front of Kayne for the next six races," said McIntyre.
Scott and McIntyre may have pulled away from the chasing pack a little, but top Holden driver Andy Booth, and the fast-improving Craig Baird, are close enough to pounce if the leading pair make any errors, or take each other out.
Booth is 123 points behind McIntyre, but with each of the three races worth 75 points, it's quite feasible, if he has a good meeting, for him to close the gap on the two front-runners.
"The engine in my car still has the control seals on from last year's Hamilton 400 support race," said Booth. "So I'm looking forward to stronger engines for the next two rounds. We're also looking forward to continuing the successful direction we took with car set-up at Teretonga [where Booth won the round] to help further close the gap to the leaders."
It took a couple of rounds for Baird to find his feet in big, banging V8s after spending time in the highly tuned, and much more aerodynamic, Porsche GT3 Cup cars. However, by the time the cars arrived in Christchurch late last year, Baird had the Ford working as he wanted it.
In nine races, he had two wins, three fourths and two 12ths to be just behind Booth in the table.
"It's fun in these cars," said Baird. "Everyone has different advantages in different parts of each circuit. Some are better under brakes and some have better acceleration. That makes for very enjoyable racing."
Paul Manuell's Holden rounds out the top five in the championship with the hard-charging Angus Fogg just behind him. Too far back to make a run at the title at this stage in the season, Fogg still has the pace to mix it with front-runners and exert good influence the overall outcome.
"It's my favourite New Zealand circuit and I've traditionally done very well there, last year qualifying on pole and winning two races and the round. In 2007, I also won the first two races and set the lap record," said Fogg.
The Fujitsu 200 premier motor race meeting also includes the New Zealand Grand Prix being contested by the Toyota Racing Series, and the Porsche GT3 Cup Series, New Zealand Production Racing Championship, MTA Formula Fords, and Mini Challenge for a full weekend's race schedule.
