Photo: Alan Dippie GT3Allan Dippie of Dunedin and Grant Aitken of Queenstown took victory in an exciting race when the long awaited opening round of the 2010 ASKO Appliances South Island Endurance Series took place at Timaru International Raceway at Levels near Timaru on Saturday.
The series had suffered two postponements after the Canterbury earthquake and then the heavy fall of snow in Southland before finally commencing with an absorbing race on the tight, twisty Timaru track.
The Dippie/Aitken Porsche passed the ailing BMW of Arron Black and Warren Good just minutes from the end of the race as the BMW suffered engine problems. Black and Good had taken the lead after the dominant car in the opening part of the race, the Toyota of Craig McDermid and Chris Dunn had struck problems, stopping twice to replenish its oil before finally expiring.
Dippie/Aitken caught and passed the BMW on lap 140 going on to win by 18 seconds, leaving the top two placegetters as the only finishers to complete 147 laps over the 3 Hour duration of the event.
Third home was another Porsche, that of Angus McFarlane and Michael Bushell. Although several laps behind the leading cars the duo were very pleased as their newly repowered, twin turbo Porsche GT3 was down on power and suffering from tyre problems.
The Ferrari F430 of Tim O’Connor, Terry Robinson and TRS driver Sam McNeill was the fastest qualifier for the race and ran prominently until a fire in the pits caused by a minor fuel spill. However due to the series stringent safety procedures the fire was quickly extinguished and the Ferrari recovered to finish 10th.
While the Ferrari set the fastest lap of the race the competitive nature of the series was demonstrated by the fact that the Dippie/Aitken, Good/Black, McFarlane/Bushell, McDermid/Dunn, Davidson/Garden cars plus the Porsche GT3 of Lindsay and Matt O’Donnell all recorded laps in the 1 minute 07 second bracket.
Dippie/Aitken won the Allied Lubricants GT Class by virtue of their race win while Bruce Davidson/David Garden of Alexandra piloted their C5 Corvette to victory in the Allied Lubricants Class 1 (3501cc and above) with 4th place overall.
The Hagley Aluminum Class 2 (2001cc -3500cc) went to Good and Black while Brent Beatson and Kirk Ransley won the Hagley Aluminum Class 3&4 (0 -2000cc) in their Renault Megane Cup car which they brought home in ninth place overall.
Mike Baker won the separate 1 hour race in his Porsche GT3 ahead of defending one hour champion Dave McLean and Peter Van Eekelen.
The second and now final round of the series will take place at the Motorsport NZ Premiere Championship Series round at Powerbuilt Raceway at Ruapuna in Christchurch on 27 November.
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, along with many other prizes donated to the Club. The Club also distributes prize money throughout the five capacity based classes in both the 1hr & 3hr Series.
