SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram

John McIntyre hands V8 drive to rookie Mark Gibson

14 January, 2014

 


JMR_McIntyre_and_Gibson_JC1.jpg

V8 SuperTourer driver and team owner John McIntyre announced yesterday that he’s handing an opportunity to drive his Blackwoods Protector race car for the 2014 race season to Taupo-bred and Auckland-based Mark Gibson.

The decision, and the teams livery for the coming seven round campaign, were revealed at the John McIntyre Racing team’s season launch, held at its Taupo Motorsport Park located workshop.

In making his decision to put 21-year-old Gibson in the FG Falcon V8 SuperTourer, Nelson-based McIntyre says the move is about creating opportunity for both new talent and his team.

“It’s a recipe that works well internationally — where the team is run by championship winning personnel that shapes raw talent into a professional result. For the team to win I need to drive it and not the car. That’s where putting the next generation in my place allows me to concentrate on all aspects of the team properly, and ultimately improve our team performance,” says McIntyre.

Having contested 17 New Zealand championships, won three NZ V8 titles (2006/2007, 2007/2008, and 2010/2011), the 2012 V8 SuperTourer sprint title and competed consecutive seasons since 1992, McIntyre says he will continue to race.

Gibson will contest all seven rounds of the series as the primary driver with McIntyre co-driving at the three endurance races that carry the majority of the season’s championship points. McIntyre will also participate during the practise sessions at the sprint rounds.

“It’s a great fit for Mark to spend four rounds surrounded by elite competition in identical specification cars to prepare him for the endurance portion of the season. That’s the one we’re really looking at being at the front of,” adds McIntyre.
The V8 SuperTourer endurance title was won last season by Hamilton’s Ant Pedersen and Australian V8Supercar driver Chaz Mostert, while the overall title winner was V8Supercar stalwart Greg Murphy.

Gibson finished the course in the top three of 11 drivers selected from the Asia Pacific Region, and set fastest times during on-track testing. He earned selection by being the top performer at the MotorSport New Zealand run Elite MotorSport Academy in 2012.

Also a certified yacht designer, having spent four years completing a degree at Auckland’s Unitec, Gibson says his current focus is on being a professional V8Supercar driver.

McIntyre says Gibson brings a high level of achievement and potential to the team as he was in New Zealand’s golf academy for two years and then represented New Zealand at the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) organised Young Driver Excellence Academy.

“After an injury stymied my golf career I took to car racing and instantly fell for the passion of competition and its challenges. Last year’s Young Driver Excellence Academy put me much further ahead on that road to being a professional driver and in front of V8Supercar and CAMS (Confederation of Australian Motor Sport) representatives,” commented Gibson.

“Now with the opportunity John has offered for 2014 it provides the perfect stepping-stone to compete at the highest level in New Zealand alongside V8Supercar drivers. Best of all I get the full attention and resources of a driver and team that has won championships.

“I can go to the first round as a rookie, be nervous and know the car and team are 100% – the perfect way to move my career forward.”

The team’s third season contesting the premier V8 SuperTourer series, action starts in a little over a week’s time when they head south to the recently established Highlands Motorsport Park, located near the central Otago township of Cromwell, January 25-26.

Janspeed recreates the Jaguar sports car

29 September, 2026

Thankfully, a few of these cars made it to New Zealand, the odd one being imported from the UK over the years. However, the 1988 British Racing Green example owned by Bill Slater in Upper Hutt was originally sold as a standard car but converted using the full Janspeed kit by the first owner within a couple of years of buying it.
Bill has owned a few other Jaguars. In fact, after he sold his Jaguar XJ12 in 2018, he found himself pining for another and, when the XJ-S came up for sale, he could not resist it. Having just sold the V12, he was not expecting much from the six-cylinder car other than more reliability and it being cheaper to keep on the road. Naturally, he had heard of the influence Janspeed had on the marque, but it was not until he took the car for a test drive that he became aware of just how superior it was to the car he had just sold. The price of a second-hand Janspeed XJ-S and that of a standard 3.6 XJ-S is quite comparable, making the Janspeed version an incredible bargain, even more so in comparison with other performance classic cars — or even modern cars, for that matter — which cost far more bucks for the bang.

The writing on the wall

25 September, 2026

Deven, a digital content producer in his 20s, says it was the rear-drive Nissan and Toyota drift cars that fired his imagination in his not-so-distant youth and soon had him wanting one of his own. However, like most of us, he had to start in something less glamorous – in his case, a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. After that, he bought a four-litre V8 1991 Toyota Soarer, a big change from the Mitsubishi.
“It was my daily driver, and it wasn’t that bad to run back when petrol was affordable,” he says.
When he got fed up with filling it up, Deven bought a 1989 Ford Laser sedan, a 1.3-litre five-speed manual, to be his daily driver. It’s in very good condition, bought from a careful older driver, and he still runs it – although he will occasionally also drive the latest in a series of Nissan Laurel sedans. His current one, from 1993, has done the lowest number of kilometres yet, at 183,000. It has the single-cam version of the engine in his Skyline.
“I’ve had four different versions of that car. It was just a car I always liked. It’s really comfortable, quite luxurious. I bought it from a 90-year-old in Hamilton. It’s in mint condition, and everything is standard.”