Otago teams were well represented in the three-hour class victories after the four-round South Island Endurance Series (SIES) wrapped up last weekend.
Driving a Volkswagen Golf GTI TCR Queenstown/Dunedin pairing Barry Moore and Tim Mackersey made it three Class B (2001-3500cc) titles from three starts. Moore said Rhys Gould and Gene Rollinson were hard to beat in a Hyundai i30N TCR but their retirement at the penultimate round in Timaru ‘‘played into our hands’’.
‘‘We also had a couple of issues. It certainly wasn’t plain sailing,’’ he said, crediting their crew for their hard work keeping the VW running.
Due to the tight time frame to prepare the car and travel to Hampton Downs for the winner-takes-all New Zealand Endurance Championship race next weekend, they have elected not to go — a decision mirrored by the Class A (0-2000cc) winners Arron and Stu Black.
The Dunedin-based brothers won all four SIES rounds in their BMW E46 WTC.
‘‘The turnaround time makes it not possible. We’ve done 12 hours of racing with two weeks between each round,’’ Stu explained.
Rotorua’s Neil Foster and Jonny Reid (Audi R8 LMS GT3) retained their three-hour SIES title after a close race for honours in Christchurch last Saturday. The Dale Chapman-owned Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo was second overall and the Christchurch driver enlisted Queenstown’s Mark Doran and Andrew Waite, of Cromwell, to achieve the runner-up position in their first season racing together
Timaru siblings Chris and Johnny Small (Porsche 997 Cup) claimed the SIES one-hour title after taking victory in the fourth round. Third overall was the pairing of Allan Dippie (Dunedin) and Scott O’Donnell (Invercargill) in their Porsche 997 Cup S.
- Catherine Pattison
PHOTO: TERRY MARSHALL
