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John McIntyre in his Ford Falcon - Source: Photosport
John McIntyre has secured pole position for the Christchurch
round of the BNT V8s Championship - the second pole position in two
rounds for the Nelson-based double V8 champion in the super
competitive series.
Craig Baird will share the front row while series leader Eddie Bell
will start from seventh.
"It's particularly pleasing to get pole here, as it's a hard
circuit to set the car up for and we haven't been able to qualify
better than fourth here for the last four years," said a happy
McIntyre.
The success of earning pole position came after a particularly difficult start to the day for John McIntyre Racing.
"Actually it's been an expensive day and the guys have worked
incredibly hard to get the Protector Safety Ford in the right
condition to do well in qualifying. It's still not quite right and
we've got some work to do tonight to make sure that we don't have
any issues during Sunday's three races."
Persistent light rain fell across Canterbury and the Ruapuna
circuit from first thing Saturday until about 3pm meaning both of
Johnny Mac's practice sessions were run on the wet-specification
Dunlop tyres.
A particularly slippery patch on turn one created a tricky moment
for McIntyre during the second lap of the first practice which
caused a minor crash.
He managed to get back to the pits but couldn't continue in the
session.
The team quickly repaired the Protector Safety Ford and, with the
circuit damp but drying for the second session, McIntyre was again
frustrated by problems, forced to pull off to the side of the
circuit with a differential failure on lap two.
Having sat out yet another practice session, McIntyre and the car were collected by the tow-truck and taken back to the pits.
