Craig Baird set his sights on yet another national motor racing title when he won the fifth round of the MotorSport New Zealand V8s championship at Manfeild.

He has built a buffer of 131 points from John McIntyre, who held a similar lead going into the Timaru round, which proved disastrous for him with a first race, first lap crash that allowed Baird to leap to the top of the table.

McIntyre was keen to grab back the initiative at Manfeild but young Auckland driver Tim Edgell had other ideas. Scoring his first pole in a rain shortened qualifying followed by his first race win in the series, a second and an eighth in the reverse grid, he claimed second for the weekend.

Edgell has been running in the top ten for a couple of years and is showing the driving skills and car preparation that will see him on the podium more often.

Defending champion Kayne Scott had his best meeting of a disappointing season finishing fourth overall, but now out of reach of retaining the title.

Weather played its hand in the weekend’s events, rain forcing the cancellation of the top ten shootout on Saturday but steadily improving conditions on Sunday allowing teams to leave the wet tyres in the pits.

For new Dunlop motorsport manager Richard Fraser and his crew it was a no- dramas event.

“The crowd witnessed one of the best rounds of the season with some spectacularly close racing but without the body damage seen in earlier seasons.

“We are looking forward now to the final round at Taupo. While Craig seems to have a good lead in the V8s, as we saw at Timaru, that can all change in an instant.”

Following round 5 the V8s leader board is:

1 Craig Baird Falcon 852
2 John McIntyre Falcon 721
3 Tim Edgell Falcon 705
4 Kayne Scott Falcon 676
5 Eddie Bell Falcon 661
Caption: A pensive Tim Edgell