Asian Motor Sports

Defending champion Kayne Scott won the first of three NZV8 races in the latest round of the national motor racing series at Teretonga in Invercargill yesterday.

In the process, Scott, driving his Holden Commodore, regained the championship points lead.

His qualifying time of 1m 2.552s secured his fourth pole position of the season and was more than 3/100ths of a second quicker then second qualifier Andy Booth. The former two-time champion set a time of 1min 2.86s in his Holden.

The two Holden drivers started on the front row of the grid for the first race, with the six Fords of John McIntyre, Clark Proctor, David Besnard, Luke Youlden, Angus Fogg and Cameron McLean behind them. The Holdens of Nick Ross and Andrew Anderson completed the top 10, with Anderson setting a time 1.1sec behind Scott.

Away cleanly from the start, Booth challenged Scott for the lead, running almost side-by-side around the outside of Scott as the pair completed the first sweeping left-hander. Scott kept his advantage, though, as the field began its second lap under the control of the safety car after marshals removed Haydn Mackenzie from the circuit after a spin.

Scott scorched ahead of his rivals at the restart and gained an advantage of several seconds over Booth.

A second safety car intervention to retrieve Darryn Henderson’s Holden from a gravel trap on lap 10 tightened the field. Scott, Booth, McIntyre, Besnard and Fogg were embroiled in a close contest before an apparent error from McIntyre, lunging to duck under Booth on the last corner, caused Besnard to take evasive action allowing Fogg to nip through on the inside to finish third.

Scott held on for victory, ahead of Booth, with McIntyre fourth, Besnard fifth and Proctor sixth.

Besnard completed the fastest lap time which gives him pole position for the 16-lap race today.