Motorsport: Technicality puts spanner in V8 works

The New Zealand V8 championship has been thrown into turmoil by a technical challenge that could eliminate some front-runners.

The general manager of the company that runs the championship, Kerry Cooper, confirmed yesterday that the technical department had inspected a number of engines after the Taupo round and was submitting a report about irregularities.

Cooper would not confirm which engines had been inspected but it is believed they were from Ford cars and included equipment used by the championship-leading Falcon driven by John McIntyre.

The problem apparently arose in the original engine building, not in actions by the individual teams.

The technical report will be considered tomorrow by the event director, Graeme Robertson, who will decide what action to take. Teams will have the chance to protest to the stewards and could take an appeal further to a Motorsport Court of Appeal.

The final round is at Pukekohe on April 21-23 and the matter could well still be in dispute past that point. McIntyre leads the championship with 973 points ahead of Kayne Scott (Holden) 961, Angus Fogg (Ford) 944 and Andy Booth (Holden) 803.