Motorsport: Team Kiwi Racing back in top 10

Team Kiwi Racing jumped back into the top-10 with an encouraging performance in the seventh round of the V8 Supercar Championship in Queensland yesterday.

Paul Radisich was eighth in his Holden in the three-race round at the Queensland Raceway.

Team Kiwi headed the New Zealand performances with Greg Murphy (Holden) 10th and Jason Richards (Holden) 16th.

Championship leader Garth Tander blitzed the fancied Ford teams on their home track to record his first round win for the 2006 season and stretch his lead.

Jason Bright (Ford) was second ahead of Craig Lowndes (Ford), with Tander increasing his lead in the championship to 38 points over Lowndes.

Tander's teammate Rick Kelly is third in the championship just six points behind Lowndes with defending champion Russell Ingall (Stone Brothers Ford) in fourth place but now 168 points from the leader.

It proved a welcome return to form for Team Kiwi Racing, the sole New Zealand team in the championship.

Radisich was 13th in each of the first two races -- the opener on Saturday and the reverse grid race today. He drove superbly to push up to seventh in the final race for his top-10 finish.

Murphy, who has had a miserable run of late, also showed some welcome strength to place 11th in the opener, 17th after getting spun in the second and a solid 10th in the final race to be 10th overall for the meeting.

Richards said his team lacked speed and was never a threat, finishing 16th.

The next round is at Oran Park in Sydney on August 11-13.

- NZPA