Tyres the key to series win

Two-time New Zealand V8 touring car champion John McIntyre, of Nelson, is primed and ready for the first South Island round of this year's BNT V8s championship at Christchurch's Ruapuna circuit over the weekend of November 28-29.

Coming into the round second on the leaderboard, McIntyre and the John McIntyre Racing team have been working hard to prepare for what is traditionally a very challenging weekend on the tight, technical circuit.

The opening round at Pukekohe was a missed opportunity, McIntyre said from the Hastings workshop where the JMR team is based. "We've had a detailed team meeting where we agreed we can't afford to miss opportunities for maximum points as we did at Pukekohe.""

The Protector Safety JMR Ford came through the closely-fought opening round in pristine condition.

"We've been able to concentrate on doing all the little jobs we wanted to do to prepare the car specifically for the Powerbuilt circuit," McIntyre said.

One key aspect of the 3.33km Ruapuna circuit is that there aren't many straights where the cars can get some cooling airflow. "Most teams have concerns about brake temperature here. You're also not getting much air through the engine or the cabin."

McIntyre is predicting that the outcome at the end of this season's six championship rounds will depend largely on how well drivers manage their tyres.

Regulation changes mean each team was given eight of the Dunlop control tyres for the opening round, then four per round after that, in contrast to the six per round allocated last season.

There is also a new top 10 flying lap shootout process.

The impact of the new limit on tyre numbers may not show up at Ruapuna, but it will start to have an effect in later rounds.

McIntyre used only four of the eight tyres allocated at Pukekohe while scoring pole position, winning the first race by a handy margin and passing numerous cars to take second place for the round, so he has four up his sleeve for use in Christchurch if needed.

"We're always on the podium here and we've qualified fourth here each time for the last three years, so the challenge for us is to have the best possible car for this circuit compared to other teams," he said. "We haven't been in that category yet – someone else has always been better than us, so we aim to change that."

The race schedule sees two practice sessions on November 28. November 29 sees all three races taking place – at 10.05am, 1pm, and the full reverse grid 22-lapper at 4.15pm.

- © Fairfax NZ News