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John McIntyre in his Ford Falcon - Source: Photosport -
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Defending champion John McIntyre won all three races at Manfeild this weekend to snatch the lead with just one round of the New Zealand V8 motor championship remaining.
With the maximum 225 points for three race wins, McIntyre's total is now 1022, moving him from a 32-point deficit to Kayne Scott to a 38-point advantage.
McIntyre was naturally delighted with three wins in one round - a feat not often achieved in this series.
He was also pleased to rack up his 40th race win in this class in Sunday's 16-lap race.
Having married long-time partner Lisa just a week ago, McIntyre laughingly concurred that married life must be agreeing with him.
"At Manfeild it's all about getting drive out of the corners and in that last race, I was able to get past a few "freight trains" of other competitors," the Nelson driver said.
With just three races to run at Pukekohe to wrap up this year's championship, McIntyre said the next two weeks would be about setting his Ford up for pole position on the fast 2.9km south Auckland circuit.
Scott was exasperated with a run of bad luck for his Ford.
"We got only 20 minutes of testing on Friday after a brand-new clutch failed, which was a disaster," he said.
"In the first rain-affected race, the windscreen fogged and a relay on the demister blew, which meant the visibility was atrocious.
"We did manage to finish second in the second race, but we got tagged in the third race, also wet, when I was being so cautious so we came in to change the tyre as a precaution. Then on the last lap the exhaust fell off. It was just one of those weekends."
