BNT: Fujitsu Teretonga Park summary

SCOTT ON THE RISE IN CHAMPIONSHIP

Hamilton driver Kayne Scott continued his fine form when Round 3 of the 2010/2011 BNT V8s Championship was held at Teretonga Park in Invercargill last weekend.

After an excellent round at the country's southernmost circuit Scott and the Fujitsu Falcon now lie third in the championship point standings.

For the second round in succession Kayne won the top ten shootout to take pole position for race one as he recorded a time of 1 minute 02.681 seconds on Saturday afternoon. He then used the position well to lead the field away in the opening race over 12 laps on Sunday morning. The Fujitsu Falcon held off John McIntyre and Craig Baird until lap four when a small mistake allowed McIntyre through. However Scott still achieved second place, holding off defending champion Baird for the remainder of the race to open his account for the weekend with a strong result.

The scenario was reversed in the second race when Kayne ran in second place initially before passing McIntyre with a nice move on the ninth lap of the 12 lap contest to take victory.

As the highest scoring driver to that point of the round Scott and the Fujitsu Falcon were at the rear of the grid for the final race, the reverse grid event. To add to the challenge rain was

falling, leaving the track very slippery. Kayne got ahead of major rival McIntyre early in the race and applied himself to picking his way through the field in the wet conditions.

When the chequered flag appeared after twenty-two laps Scott had skilfully worked his way to sixth place, giving him second overall for the round and propelling himself to third in the championship.

"The highlight for me was gaining pole position," said Kayne as he reviewed his efforts. "It was a real battle. Early on here we were fast but not quite good enough. It is awkward to know sometimes. We made some changes between the two test sessions on Saturday and we had a good car for the second period. I was confident going into qualifying and I was stoked to get my second pole in two rounds. I had a pretty good car and I was annoyed I made a silly mistake in the first race. It was good though to recover to second. It gave me a hunger to put it right because of all the hard work the guys have done. I was rapt to win race two. Generally the car was pretty good and the pace was very good."

There were a lot of positives that Kayne and the Fujitsu Team could take from the wet reverse grid race too. "We didn't have a lot of success in the rain last year so we took a cautious approach and used a conservative set up. We ended up with a pretty good car in the rain and that is something we can work with going forward, especially in New Zealand."

Round 4 of the championship will take place at Timaru International Motor Raceway at Levels next weekend. Kayne will arrive at the circuit gunning for a hat trick of pole positions after his success at Powerbuilt Tools Raceway in Christchurch and Teretonga. "We made the top ten and I felt I had the car for pole there last year but we broke an axle."

The motivation of three consecutive pole positions should see the Fujitsu Falcon in the thick of the battle at Timaru.

After a brief shakedown session on Friday afternoon testing at the 2.4 kilometre Timaru circuit takes place at 10.05am and 1.50pm on Saturday. Qualifying for all cars followed by the top ten shootout commences at 4.05pm. As at every round all three races will be fought out on Sunday, the first over 12 laps at 10.00am, the second again over 12 laps is timed for 12.45pm and the reverse grid finale over 22 laps will start at 4.00pm.

The team are pleased to retain their major sponsors Fujitsu and Altherm for the 2010/2011 season as well as other returning sponsors Trade Tools, Castrol, PPG and CRC. Welcome newcomers to the team this year are Hansen, Hirepool, South Auckland Ford, InterCity, Exedy, Century Yuasa, BOC Gases, King Springs and TL Print.

-source: fujitsu racing/beer