Simon Sceats heads south this week to Manfeild for the penultimate round of the 2010/11 New Zealand Production Racing championship.
The Audi S3 Sportback driver said that he is proud of how his Audi Dealer Network/Mondiale-backed team had progressed so far.
From the opening round of the series, at Pukekohe Park Raceway in October last year, where the car enjoyed a strong competition debut, to the third round at Invercargill's Teretonga Park in mid-January where Sceats steered the sleek silver S3 to its first win, their progress had been "nothing short of spectacular."
Converting a hi-tech volume production road car into a race winner hadn't been easy, but the challenge, said Sceats, was part of the appeal.
"It was the main reason I wanted to be involved. Having won two Production Racing championships already, I was looking for a new challenge. It has been very satisfying seeing the progress we, as a team, have made as we responded to that task."
Arguably the greatest challenge facing the team charged with developing and running the car, Auckland-based International Motorsport, was that there was no plan to follow. Neither Audi nor any of its other distributors around the world had ever race-prepared an S3 Sportback. Without having a set of category rules to follow, the team and its sub-contractors were on their own.
One of those sub-contractors was internationally-respected New Zealand tuner Kent Thompson who runs Speed Source in Warkworth, north of Auckland.
Having seen the difference Thompson could make to the Subarus he used to race in the New Zealand Production Racing championship, Sceats had no hesitation in recommending him to International Motorsport.
"Kent's an expert in maximising the potential of a car, within a fairly restrictive set of rules, in terms of practical tuning," said Sceats. " He's absolutely relentless in his pursuit of the last kW of power. Recently he's been working hard to ensure that the boost pressure we are allowed within the rules stays consistent right across the rev range."
Thompson's highlights of the campaign so far have been the car's first race win early in the programme, podium finishes at both South Island rounds in January, and the encouraging feedback from race-goers.
"It's been really positive," said Thompson, "particularly from people who remember me from my Subaru days and say that it's good to see me trying something a little bit more innovative. I've also received a lot of positive feedback about Audi's decision to put the S3 Sportback on the track; people are genuinely interested in seeing a manufacturer enter the series with a brand new car."
Heading into the fifth round of the 2010/11 New Zealand Production Racing championship series at the CRC 200 meeting at Manfeild this weekend Sceats and the S3 Sportback are fourth in the overall points standings just 46 points behind current third place holder, Logan Childs.
Leading the standings is Auckland's Grant Liston with Queenstown's Grant Aitken in second place.
The NZ Production Racing championship cars will be on track at Manfeild from Friday with qualifying and the first 10-lap race of the weekend on Saturday and two further races on Sunday, a second 10 lapper in the morning and a 12-lap reverse grid final in the afternoon.
