Top ten hit-out for McIntyre

Top New Zealand V8 driver John McIntyre has been testing with Shane van Gisbergen and the Stone Brothers Racing team at the Winton Motor Raceway in Victoria, Australia, in preparation for the two main endurance races later in the year.

McIntyre, from Nelson, is paired with expat Kiwi van Gisbergen to contest the Phillip Island 500 and Bathurst 1000 in September and October respectively and series organisers allow endurance drivers to test with their team at selected rounds, like Winton, before the enduros.

McIntyre hopped into the #9 SP Tools Ford Falcon for the first two 30 minute practise sessions for this weekend’s Winton event.

“It was all very positive and the team was pleased with progress today. We used the same used tyres that Shane finished the last race in Queensland on a couple of weeks ago, so they weren’t going to get any better, but it’s a good test of set-up,” says McIntyre.

“We did struggle to find the right set-up in the first session and then lost some time with a fouled sparkplug. By the time we’d sorted that, I was only 25th quickest.

“The second session was much better. We kept working on the car and it got better and better, leaving me with the eighth quickest time. This was fourth best among the endurance, non-regular drivers, and ahead of plenty of big name drivers, so it was a solid and encouraging time in the car.”

McIntyre has made the most of the opportunity to spend more time with Stone Brothers Racing while the team was working on preparation for this weekend’s 120km and 200km races on the Victorian circuit, as well as their plans for the long distance races nearly four months away.

McIntyre won’t be back in the #9 SP Tools Ford until early September when he enjoys a full day test session before the L&H 500 at Phillip Island, south of Melbourne, from 10 to 12 September.

“Then we’ll be back at Bathurst, the big one, the Supercheap Auto 1000, which is on from 7 to 10 October and it’s always exciting to think of racing at Mt Panorama alongside the rural New South Wales town.

“In the meantime, I wish Shane and all the SBR crew the very best of luck for another successful weekend of racing. It’s fantastic to see Shane on the podium and long may it continue!”

Qualifying results from Winton

Practice 1 - http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?16/05/2010.WIN.P4

Practice 2 - http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?16/05/2010.WIN.P6