With only a few weeks to go until the 2011 ASKO Appliances South Island Endurance Series roars into life, the Series has a good range of entries from across the board and has secured a huge prize & prize money package for its competitors.
The series has again secured ASKO Appliances as it naming rights sponsor and along with the class sponsors Allied Petroleum / Mobil 1, Southern Demolition & Hagley Aluminum they have managed to secure NZ’s largest motorsport prize money pool to give away. “We have $30,000 in cash that we will pay as prize money” said series secretary Chris Dunn.
“We will present the 3hr series winners a cheque for $10,000 and the balance will be paid out on class points, so the little cars will probably take home more money than the bigger class cars. We also have a magnificent Norm Sinclair original painting valued at around $10,000 to give away as a spot prize, so it’s easily NZ’s best prize & prize money package!”
The ASKO SI Endurance Series will again be run over 3 rounds, one at each of the South Island race circuits. Round One will be at Teretonga Park, Invercargill on Saturday 24 September 2011, Round Two at Powerbuilt Ruapuna, Christchurch on Saturday 1 October 2011 and the final round Three at Levels Raceway, Timaru on Saturday 15 October 2011.
The 2011 Series will see 10 of the top 12 teams from the 2010 3hr Series all returning for another crack at the South Island Endurance Series title and as always there is a great variety of old and new machinery in the Series.
“Actually this year there are about as many new cars in the series, as those seen before” said Dunn, with over 30 cars already registered for the 3hr Series, plus a separate 1hr Race Series & championship.
The 1hr race series runs in conjunction with the ASKO 3hr Series, with separate 1hr & 3hr races at each round. The 1hr race give those with less experience, lower budgets or just those wanting pre-season race miles a great opportunity to be part of the series and is a great insight into the strategy & stamina involved in Endurance racing.
“Interestingly enough all the cars entered for the 1hr series to date are around 2000cc or less” said Dunn. “So this will definitely make for very close racing & a hard fought and exciting 1hr series.”
With the races separated, both series’ will still have 5 separate racing classes with cars divided into four capacity based classes being, Class 4: 0-1600cc, Class 3: 1601-2000cc, Class 2: 2001-3500cc and class 1: 3501cc and over, but also include a GT class for the Porsche GT3’s & V8 Supercars and other exotic cars, such as the Ferrari 430 Challenge, in the field.
Although very happy with entries to date Dunn says that there are always room for more. We would love to see a few more in our one hour series to make it a good race for everyone.
This is a great low cost way to get race miles and can be done with either single or dual drivers, plus the series probably has the most open eligibility of any Motorsport NZ Sanctioned Series.
Competitors can register their interest by contacting the series secretary, Chris Dunn, via e-mail at sierdc@xtra.co.nz or phone 021-107-9293.
Any potential competitors, crews and supporters are welcome to be added to the clubs e-mailing list by simply sending an e-mail to the above address, or via the Clubs facebook page at facebook.com/southislandenduranceseries
