Andy Booth in The Rock FM Commodore fought his way onto the podium finishing 3rd overall at the latest round of the BNT V8 Championship held over the weekend at Manfeild Raceway.
In scorching conditions at the Manawatu venue where drivers had to contend with in-car temperatures approaching 50 deg C, Booth qualified in 8th place after a qualifying shootout where mere hundredths of a second could have resulted in 2 or 3 places in either direction.
The Rock FM Holden driver then provided much entertainment for the large crowd with hard charging, wheel to wheel drives in each of Sunday's 3 races. Booth's fighting style netted 4th in race one, a fighting 8th in race 2 after battling deteriorating car handling and having to concede 3 places to McLaughlin, Baird and championship leader Fogg in the closing laps and then in the 22 lap full reverse grid race 3 Booth clawed his way from 15th on the grid up to 6th at the chequered flag to earn his spot on the podium alongside Round winner Tim Edgell and 2nd placed Kayne Scott.
Despite the trying conditions Booth was clearly pleased with the weekend's work:
"That was a tough but fun day at the office, 50 deg heat had me puffing hard at times but all 3 races today have been a blast. Close, tough clean racing like we had today with Andy Knight, Henshaw, McLaughlin, Fogg and more is what it's all about and to be rewarded with a podium finish is the icing on top"
Booth's podium result strengthens his 5th place in the overall championship standings and is now only 51 points back from 4th placed John McIntyre.
Over the weekend Andy combined driving duties with his regular presenting role with TV3's V8 Supercar coverage as the network did double duty covering both the BNTV8races and the opening round of the Australian V8 Supercar Championship from Abu Dhabi.
On Friday Andy also paid a visit to North Street School in Feilding where he spoke to a packed assembly of year 1-8 pupils about being a V8 race driver and signed posters for the hundreds who stayed behind to get autographs.
Round 6 of the BNTV8 Championship takes place in Taupo on March 12-13
-source: andy booth
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