Asian Motor Sports

Paul Manuell made it a start-to-finish win in the Orix Holden in the first of three races this weekend in the BNT V8s Championship.

Having secured pole position during Saturday’s qualifying for the Hydraulink 200, Manuell, a former V8s champion in the Orix Holden, went on to win an action-packed race from defending V8s champion John McIntyre and long-time top V8s competitor Dean Perkins.

The twelve lap race involved two incidents that required safety car intervention – the first being on the very first lap when, racing very closely, Andy Booth, Craig Baird, Andrew Porter and Michael Bristow clashed. Booth then scored a drive-through penalty by officials.

Manuell kept to the front, successfully fighting off a very determined Kayne Scott in the Fujitsu Ford while McIntyre and Fogg were also involved in a battle at close-quarters. McIntyre had the inside line going around Pukekohe’s infamous right-handed sweeper as Fogg was forced wide, shooting off onto the grass into the esses. Coming back onto the circuit, Fogg touched the unfortunately-placed Tim Edgell, sending him off.

The 28-strong field down to 24, the next incident saw Scott spun at the hairpin, allowing McIntyre and Perkins through behind Manuell for the chequered flag.

“Kayne [Scott] had real good pace down the chute,” explained a delighted Manuell. “He was right on my tail at the hairpin and the next thing he was gone. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had a pole position so it’s fantastic to win from pole and show the team I’ve still got a bit of talent!”

“Our car isn’t quite as good as we’d hoped today,” said McIntyre, but the two-time V8s champion was delighted to move into the series lead the points earned from his second place. Provisionally McIntyre now has 228 points, Scott is second with 206, Radisich third with 181, Booth fourth on 174 and Fogg and Paul Pedersen fifth equal on 146 points.

Earlier in the day, Fogg’s successful appeal against an official decision that excluded him from the results of race three at the BNT V8s Championship opening round in Taupo early in October saw the points’ leader-board was reshuffled. At that point Paul Radisich, who’s not racing this weekend due to injuries sustained at Bathurst, led with 181 points, Kayne Scott was second with 178 points, Andy Booth third with 162 points, John McIntyre fourth with 161 points and Fogg moved into fifth place with 122 points.

Perkins was also delighted to be on the podium for his first race of the season. The long-time V8 campaigner is running a truncated V8 series this season as he looks for a new sponsor. “There was quite a bit of action in the field! Kayne going off just left me in the right place, which is great for our team which is running a new Ford engine built by Wayne Anderson who also builds Paul’s [Manuell] engines,” said the Pukekohe driver.

The second part of the BNT V8s Championship at Pukekohe sees a 16-lap race on Sunday morning and a 20-lap reverse grid race on Sunday afternoon, both with rolling starts.