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Dixon fourth - but needs more if title challenge to materialise

Hunter-Reay won ahead of Juston Wilson

Kiwi Scott Dixon scored some very valuable points in this year's title chase after a fourth place at Long Beach but he still needs results. Dixon has slipped a place to sixth in the Indycar standings after finishing fourth in the latest race in Long Beach, California.

American Ryan Hunter-Reay won ahead of Justin Wilson and series leader Will Power. Taking advantage of a brief mechanical problem by Will Power early, Hunter-Reay cruised to his second career Indy Racing League title Sunday at the Grand Prix of Long Beach.

"It was like a home race for us," said Hunter-Reay, who grew up in Florida but moved to Southern California six years ago. "To win here is extra special to me."

Dixon remained satisfied with his performance after struggling in qualifying, saying that he scored some valuable points but needs better results in the next few races. He is currently 60 points behind Power in the standings and tied with teammate Dario Franchitti.

McIntyre completes Hamilton Hatrick

McIntyre headed a South Island walkover
Nelson racing driver John McIntyre (Talleys Falcon) has completed a hat trick of BNT V8s race wins at the V8 Supercar ITM 400 held in Hamilton over the weekend. Christchurch drivers Andy Knight (Radio Live Falcon) and Eddie Bell (Independent Fisheries Falcon) made it a clean sweep for the South Island by filling 2nd and 3rd podium placings in what has been an action packed day of racing. McIntyre was especially delighted with his and the team’s performance as they have now passed 50 BNT V8 race wins in their career.

Kayne Scott (Fujitsu Heat Pumps Falcon) made a superb start in this morning’s Race 2 by jumping McIntyre who was on pole position while Andrew Anderson also got away superbly to move up to 3rd out of Turn 1. After the Turn 1 antics on the Saturday race, the following drivers left their Race 2 melee until Turn 2 where three abreast simply did not work. The most affected was Paul Manuell who received a push from behind but somehow gathered control to survive the corner.

On the short straight between Turns 2 and 3, further drama involved spinning cars which left Shannon Coker facing backwards and Simon Richards innocently into the concrete wall. The safety car was deployed to allow Richards’ car to be removed with damage too severe for him to continue for the day making a sad end to what has been a good season for the Hamilton driver. John Penny was also tied up in the drama and pitted to make a precautionary wheel change.

Button storms to second win in China

Another inspired decision paid dividends for JB

Jenson Button stormed to his second win of the season as he headed team-mate Lewis Hamilton to a McLaren one-two at the Chinese Grand Prix - and once again an inspired tyre choice was the main stepping stone to the victory.

Rain played havoc in China as Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg held off Ferrari's Fernando Alonso to finish third with Renault's Robert Kubica in fifth - and with all struggling to get the best out of tyres on a permanently greasy surface that was too dry for full wets and in the main, too wet for anything other than intermediates.

Button's win means he leads the drivers' championship by 10 points. Despite starting at the front of the grid, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber finished sixth and eighth - both were working their tyres hard on a day where lengevity was key.

Kubica's team-mate Vitaly Petrov completed an impressive day for Renault when he overtook Webber late on to take seventh position and earn his first points in Formula 1. Button had won the Australian Grand Prix after an early swap to slick tyres proved crucial and it was again superior strategic decisions by the 2009 world champion which led to him dominating for much of the race.

McIntyre to start third in first Hamilton NZV8 race - Edgell on pole

McIntyre took third on the grid
John McIntyre lines up third on the starting grid for the first New Zealand V8 touring car race in Hamilton, one of the support races for the V8 Supercar ITM400.

“We didn’t have a top ten shootout as officials needed to access the circuit to clean up an oil spill. That was disappointing, but it’s just one of those things,” says McIntyre, a two-time NZV8 champion and owner of John McIntyre Racing. “We just have to make the most of being third, on the inside line.”

Johnny Mac was fastest during the morning’s official test session, setting a time of 1:32.2260 on the 3.4 km street circuit. He says although the Talley’s Ford was the quickest of the 25 NZV8s in Hamilton, the team knew exactly what they wanted to do to get more speed on the unforgiving street circuit. The NZV8s headed out for their first early afternoon qualifying session, where McIntyre was again the fastest.

“With the top ten shootout cancelled, our second qualifying session then became the session to set the grid,” he explains. “The split sector timing on this circuit showed I was on a very good lap, 0.5 seconds up after second sector, but then I made two mistakes in the last sector, and didn’t have a chance to do another faster lap.” Tim Edgell has pole with a time of 1:31.3, Kayne Scott is second with 1:31.6 and McIntyre’s time is just a fraction slower, 1:31.7.

“Although we aren’t on pole, it’s actually better to be third on the grid than second or fourth because of the nature of the first corner. Tim and I can keep the inside line, whereas Kayne and Angus Fogg, who’s fourth, are outside us around two sharp bends.” Race one for the NZV8s is at 11am on Saturday features, 12 laps. Race two, also 12 laps, is at 9:15am on Sunday, and race three – with the starting order not the usual reverse grid format, but based on finishing places in race two – starts at 3:15pm and running for 16 laps.

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