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Big names head for Battery Town Porsches

Life is set to be even tougher for Baird this season

The pressure goes on defending champion Craig Baird this weekend as former sparring partner Matt Halliday and fellow single-seater ace Jonny Reid join him on the grid at Pukekohe Park Raceway for the first round of the 2009/10 Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championship

Baird, 39, has dominated the Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championship since its inception, the 2008/09 title his fifth in a row. But former series regular Halliday, now 30, arrives at Pukekohe fresh from finishing seventh overall and claiming the Rookie of The Year trophy at the final round of the F1-supported Porsche Supercup series at Abu Dhabi. And Reid, 26, joins the popular Battery Town series after a stellar career in single-seaters in which he played a key role in A1 Team New Zealand's successful A1GP World Cup of Motorsport campaigns in 2006 and 2007 before heading to the United States to contest the Firestone Indy Lights championship in 2008.

Add in Daniel Gaunt, back for a third season in the Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championship after a successful first season in the Fujitsu V8 Supercar championship series in Australia, and reigning Toyota Racing Series champion Mitch Cunningham who has stepped up to the Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup championship for the 2009/10 season and you have arguably the strongest driver lineup ever to face the starter of a Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup race.

This weekend's opening series round is also one of the best supported at the opening round of Motorsport New Zealand's 2009/10 championship series with 15 starters.

McIntyre primed as V8s get ready for blast off

Key mods have left McIntyre ready for action

Two-time New Zealand V8 touring car champion John McIntyre is primed and ready for what is sure to be a hard-fought race season in the BNT V8s Championship.

McIntyre lines up against fellow NZ V8 competitors in the season opener at Pukekohe over the weekend of 7 and 8 November.

“We’re here to win our third NZ V8 championship title and we’re really excited about getting racing,” says the Nelson-based 32-year-old. “There is no other objective – it’s always about winning. But ironically, since losing last year’s championship in the very last race, we know now more than ever, it’s one thing to ‘want to win’. It’s another thing entirely to ‘know how to win’. You have to lose to know how to win, and this season we – me, the car and the team – are better prepared than we have ever been.”

Over the last few months, the Hastings-based John McIntyre Racing crew has been hard at work on the #47 JMR Ford while McIntyre has been racing with top V8 Supercar team Stone Brothers Racing (SBR) during the two endurance races at Phillip Island and Bathurst.

“In terms of mental and physical preparation, my work with Stone Brothers over the past few months has put me in a great position to attack the New Zealand V8 series flat-out. Bathurst is one of the hardest environments you will ever find in touring car racing in the world, so to be the lead driver for a top team like Stone Brothers, to have the pressure of qualifying on a high speed circuit like Mount Panorama; these factors have made a difference to my level of preparation this season.”

Closer ties for Oz and Kiwi karting planned

There are plans to build links across the ditch for karters

Closer ties between the New Zealand and Australian karting fraternities are likely in the wake of a successful trip by a group of Kiwi KZ2 class competitors to the big Horsepower Heaven kart meeting in Melbourne over the October 31/November 01 weekend.

Recently re-crowned Steward Motors New Zealand Shifter Series KZ2 champion Ryan Grant was the dominant force in the KZ2 class over the weekend, qualifying quickest and winning both heats as well as the Pre-Final and Final.

But far from being put out by his form, or that of compatriots Graeme Smyth, Richard Moore and Steve Brown, the Australians were eagerly enquiring about crossing the Tasman to try and even up the score.

"They're certainly keen, " says KartSport New Zealand executive member Graeme Moore. "It's really just a matter of coming up with an event or events that suit." KZ2 is one of KartSport's premier gearbox (or Shifter) categories and the races at the Melbourne meeting attracted a 20-strong field of Australian drivers supplemented by four Kiwis - Ryan Grant, Graeme Smyth, Richard Moore and Steve Brown - and Scottish champion Daniel Borton.

Quinn wins Targa

Tony Quinn won again in his GTR

Tony Quinn has won the 2009 Dunlop Targa Rally with a margin of 5 minutes and 35 seconds. Second was Clark Procter and third Jason Gill.

Wellington turned on a cracker of a day. The southerly had blown through and the sun was out and 15°. There were in fact still 71 main event starters plus 18 doing only the Wellington stages. SS39 was Shelley Bay from 'outside to inside' and spectators were out in force.

It was to be the un-doing of Leigh Hopper and Michelle Bain as they ended up on the rocks and they had to crane him out.

Procter, Manuell and Ron Scanlan (down in 28th) all put down 3:03. Next was Brent Early on a 3:07, then Quinn 3:09 and Gill 3:11. SS40 was an old Targa favourite, Whiteman's Valley in Upper Hutt. It didn't go well for Proctor, however,who limped into control and Jason Gill towed him to his Service Crew. Apparently it was not the alternator that was the problem, it was the battery.

SS41 was the first run over Moonshine, this time from the Upper Hutt end. Mike Sexton's M3 had come out of Parc Ferme for a gearbox problem - worse, they had no clutch at all and the ground was covered in brake fluid. The sequential box had to come out as the centre push clutch seals had blown. They finished at 1 am.

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