Andrew Waite will make the transition from his international prototype racing to GT driving as he partners with Tony Quinn at Highlands Motorsport Park on Saturday.
Waite (29), fresh from finishing second in the 2018 FRD LMP3 China Endurance
Championship (CEC), joins Quinn in his Aston Martin Vantage GT3 for the three-hour race.
The two cars are quite different to drive. Waite’s 400hp CEC car is a long-slung Nissan V8-powered LMP3 prototype, which he describes as ‘‘a GT car crossed with a single-seater’’.
‘‘They are very cool to drive as they have a lot of aero. They are a very responsive car and it takes quite a unique driving style to be fast in them.’’
The Aston Martin is powered by a V12 and has a couple of hundred more horsepower under the bonnet. Waite is looking forward to putting it through its paces on his home circuit after partnering with Quinn at the Hampton Downs 500 last month.
‘‘It’s very cool. Quite a lot different from the prototype. I’ll be switching back into GT mode,’’ he said.
Waite has demonstrated his versatility as a driver this year, travelling to China to partner with Chinese driver Leo Ye for four rounds of the CEC.
Each round consisted of two one-hour races and the pair held a one-point lead over Team PTRS team-mates Josh Burdon and Nigel Moore going into the final race at the V1 Auto World Tianjin circuit in Beijing two weeks ago.
However, things didn’t go according to script and Burdon and Moore won the championship, providing a 1-2 result.
‘‘Even though we didn’t win in our car, it felt like a win with having achieved all the goals we set and with what we achieved as a team,’’ Waite said.
It was Waite’s second year with Team PTRS, which is owned by Taiwanese pop star and professional driver Jimmy Lin, and he hopes to return for a third year, but for now his focus is on today’s endurance race.
Despite living and working at Highlands, Waite insists he has had no extra practice laps in Quinn’s Aston Martin.
‘‘We will go into it the same as everyone else,’’ he said.
The New Zealand Endurance Championship’s one-hour race starts at 11.15am and the three-hour race starts at 1.45pm
today.
- by Catherine Pattison
Photo: Supplied
