Newspaper Article 1995 – McIntyre ‘fairest driver’

McIntyre ‘fairest driver’

By Ian Anderson

Staff reporter, Hastings

Promising Hastings motor racing driver John McIntyre has been awarded the best and fairest driver title in the recently completed Nissan GT series.

The youngster finished the series in fifth place after a tightly-run competition throughout the year. He would have finished higher had it not been for a couple of incidents during races when McIntyre was driven off the circuit by a rival driver.

McIntyre has just turned 18 and possesses a bright future in the sport after being named among the top 20 drivers in the country in a recent motor racing publication.

McIntyre completed his racing season recently by finishing seventh in an enduro race at Manfeild.

After a crash in his previous series race, McIntyre’s crew performed wonders to prepare his car in time for the Manfeild event and the Hastings driver qualified for the race, along with co-driver Rhys McKay, in fifth position.

Unfortunately for the pair, weather conditions meant the course was declared wet, so their Nissan had to run on tyres which had never been tested previously.

A top drive by McIntyre saw the pair third at the driver change, and McKay recovered from being tapped from behind in the wet conditions to finish seventh overall.

With a number of other competitors also in contention for the series title driving conservatively, McIntyre was unable to make any progress up the ladder but remained satisfied with the progress he made and the recognition received in only his second season in the big time.

Photo caption – John McIntyre in his new Nissan.