The ASKO Appliances South Island Endurance Three hour Series races into its second round at Levels Raceway, Timaru this weekend with both the race and the series wide open. The weekend will also be the first round of the Two round One Hour series.
The two pace setters from the 3hr Series’ opening Teretonga round both step up a gear for Round Two with the Teretonga winning Carter/Carter BA Super Supercar receiving a fresh 6 litre V8 engine from SBR in Australia whilst the Porsche GT3 RSR of Scott O’Donnell is joined by gun South Island driver Andy Neale as co-pilot for the Levels round. These two cars are closely matched for pace with less than a minute separating these two cars at the end of the Teretonga race. Although the tighter & twistier Levels circuit is more likely to suit the Porsche, as everyone knows with Endurance Racing so much can happen and it is impossible to rule out anyone as a potential podium finisher.
With all the Turbo cars suffering major issues at Teretonga, the V8 brigade really showed their reliability and the Teretonga 3rd placegetters & class 1 leading Davidson/Garden C5 Corvette will be again looking for a podium finish. However they will again have the 427ci v8 powered XR8 Ute of Scarfe/Black and the Wade Henshaw fettled Wadsworth/Croft VY Commodore V8 breathing down their necks.
The turbo cars will certainly be looking for some revenge at Levels with the Swaney/McDermid Supra powered Corolla car getting a fresh engine after being forced to run low boost at Teretonga and Cliff/Knighton are also back with the 911 4WD Porsche after falling foul of a blown turbo with 4 minutes to run at Teretonga. Joining the turbo brigade for round 2 will be George & Angus McFarlane in the Supra powered Altezza, as Angus' Porsche is still awaiting engine parts, and the Toyota Beams turbo powered Sprinter of Pat Heagney & Scott McDermid which had a recent dyno run at over 500rwhp, so could well surprise.
Levels will also see the first rotary’s join the 2009 season with Tracy Mann's RX7 which will be co-driven by classic competitor Bruce Tinnelly going up against the Rotary RX3 of Dean McGuigan/Pavlos van Aalst.
The Levels circuit’s tight and twisty nature has always favored handling over horsepower, meaning that the cars such as the BMW SuperTourer's will no doubt also be on the pace, and there is an influx of BMW's for the trickier Levels circuit. Two BMW M3's join the series, one for Shane Helms/Rob Bolland and they will be taking on the Chapman/Chapman Supertourer which came back from a qualifying crash at Teretonga to finish 4th and the Good/Black WTCC spec BMW 320i that will be looking for more luck than Teretonga where they crashed out in the 2nd qualifying session & were unable to repair the car to start the race.
Warren Good will also be doing double duties at Levels as he has also entered a BMW M3 in the first round of the ASKO Appliances One Hour Series that kicks off at Levels. Another driver doing double duties will be Stu Black who as well as driving the GT radials V8 Ute in 3hr will run his starlet in the 1hr race. The 1hr Series has seen an influx of starlets with Stu Black’s Starlet being joined by fellow Dunedin Starlet driver Jason Kotkamp, Christchurch’s John Cottier and the more modified Starlet of Invercargill’s Jeremy & Bradley Dawson who along with fellow Southlander and traditional 3hr regular Dave McLean in his very fast Integra and Timaru local Roger Carter in his classic Porsche 911RS, are likely to be the favourites for the 1 hour race honours.
After this weekends round, the ASKO Appliances SI Endurance Series moves to its Grand Finale at Powerbuilt Ruapuna Saturday 31st October 2009. The overall 3hr series champion will be awarded the ‘South Canterbury Toyota Cup’, plus the Club has been donated an original watercolor painting by High Country artist Norman Sinclair valued at approx. $10,000-00 which will be given away as a spot prize. The overall One Hour series champion will receive the new SIERDC 1 Hour Champions trophy and the Club also gives away prizes and prizemoney throughout the five classes being McFarlane Group Developments Class 4 (0-1600cc), Burnside Contractors Class 3 (1601-2000cc), Hagley Building Products Class 2 (2001-3500cc), Southern Finance Class 1 (3501cc and over) and the new ASKO Appliances GT class.
Entries are still available for both the Three Hour and One Hour Series’, and for information on the South Island Endurance Series, entries, or to be added to the SIERDC e-mailing list, please contact Series Secretary Chris Dunn via e-mail at sierdc@xtra.co.nz or ph 021-107-9293. For more information on series sponsor ASKO, please visit www.ASKO.co.nz
Points to date:
ASKO Appliances Overall points
1st Carter/Carter – BA Supercar – 95 points
2nd O’Donnell/O’Donnell – Porsche GT3 RSR – 87 points
3rd Davidson/Garden – Corvette C5 – 80 points
ASKO Appliances GT Class
1st Carter/Carter – BA Supercar – 95 points
2nd O’Donnell/O’Donnell – Porsche RSR – 87 points
3rd = Cliff/Knighton – Porsche 996T 4WD – 20 points
3rd = Dippie/Grellet – Porsche GT3 – 20 points
Southern Finance Ltd Class 1 (3501cc +)
1st Davidson/Garden – Corvette C5 – 95 points
2nd Scarfe/Black – Ford XR8 Ute – 87 points
3rd Wadsworth/Croft – VY Commodore – 80 points
Hagley Building Products Class 2 (2001 – 3500cc)
1st Chapman/Chapman – BMW SuperTourer – 95 points
2nd Tulloch/Elder – Integra Turbo – 20 points
3rd O’Donnell/Swinbourne – BMW SuperTourer – 20 points
Southern Finance Ltd Class 3 (0-2000cc)
1st Greenslade/Murphy – Datsun S2000 – 20 points
2nd Good/Black – BMW 320i – 0 points
McFarlane Group Developments Class 4 (0-1600cc)
No entrants
