With just three BNT V8 SuperTourer races at Taupo before the 2013 Sprint Season champion is crowned, it looks to be a two horse race between Greg Murphy’s Holden V8ST and Ant Pedersen’s Ford V8ST.

Murph – on fire this year in SuperTourers and with the back injury of 2012 now firmly behind him – has 1840 points with Pedersen on 1632.

Pedersen has been something of a revelation this year. He won the feature race at the first ever SuperTourer meeting at Hampton Downs in 2012, but after that was unable to string together a championship challenging series of results for International motorsport. This season it’s been very different, with Ant competitive at Hampton Downs (a performance which included an electrifying pole position lap), the Powerbuilt Tools Raceway, Ruapuna and Pukekohe.

Shane van Gisbergen has moved up the order in the points to third, largely due to his faultless round winning performance in the hugely challenging conditions of Pukekohe. The V8 Supercar star seems now to be fully up to speed in his SuperTourer and is enjoying the car immensely, commenting after Pukekohe; “We were just flat all the way and you can’t do that in a Supercar. The car’s good under brakes and the tyre gives you confidence to brake late.”

Fourth is the points is Daniel Gaunt – but with Andrew Waite set to race at Taupo in the Tasman Motorsports Group car ‘Abe’ in order to strengthen the team’s overall ability in the forthcoming endurance races, it’s likely he will only head south in the Sprint Series points table. Waite, recovered after a broken wrist, is itching to get behind the wheel having been pencilled in to race at Pukekohe at the Brother 350, and he could easily spring a surprise at Taupo, where his team made their debut last season in the Fathers’ Day 400.

Young guns Richard Moore – another star performer so far this season – and Andre Heimgartner are next up in fifth and sixth, while the oldest racer in the field, the evergreen Paul Manuell, lies a highly impressive seventh after three consistent weekends.

More often than not, there’s just a second or so separating pole position from the back of the BNT V8 SuperTourer grid, but even with this hugely competitive pack, last year’s Sprint Series champ John McIntyre would have hoped for better than eighth at this stage, though at his home track he will be hyped up and well prepared to put on a great show.

The Taupo weekend takes place on August 31/September 1 with practice, qualifying and support category racing on Saturday and SuperTourer and support class racing on the Sunday. Check out the V8ST ticketing page to make sure you get there and see the country’s top drivers in the country’s fastest V8 touring cars.