The VIP Petfoods team has led a Porsche clean-sweep of the 9-1/2-hour endurance race at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, New Zealand.
What was originally intended to be a 12-hour race lost almost a fifth of its duration after early-morning fog blanketed the 2.8km North Island circuit.
When the event finally got underway at 9.30am, two and a half hours after the scheduled start time, Australians Klark and Tony Quinn and New Zealander Stefan Webling dominated proceedings in the VIP Petfoods 997 RSR.
The trans-Tasman trio qualified on pole position and led all but three of the 471 laps.
When Tony Quinn crossed the finish line at 7pm, he had a 29-lap lead over the second-placed 997 GT3 of Australians Malcolm and Brett Niall and Clint Harvey.
Completing the trifecta for the German manufacturer were New Zealanders Denis Roderick, David Glasson and Aaron Harris in their 996 TT.
Fellow Kiwis and second-fastest qualifiers Andre Heimgartner and Phillip Hood had the honour of being the only other team to lead the race in their 996 TT on lap five, but their joy was short-lived.
Klark Quinn swiftly retook the position three laps later, and the VIP Petfoods car was never headed thereafter.
Heimgartner and Hood dropped steadily down the order and finished ninth, 199 laps in arrears.
Afterwards, Klark Quinn said he was impressed by at the RSR’s performance throughout the race.
“We hadn’t raced that car since the 2009 Nurburgring 24-hour, but it ran faultlessly all day,” Quinn said.
“It’s such a cool car to drive – I’d forgotten what awesome traction it has!”
Quinn conceded that he sacrificed the lead in the opening laps rather than take unnecessary risks.
“The track was still damp in places at the start, and the last thing I wanted to do in such a long race was push too hard early on.
“It was better to let the other car through, because if I’d tried to defend the lead I might have made a mistake that could have put the VIP Petfoods team out of the race.
“The track was drying, and I knew that I could get back in front without jeopardising our race plan.
“The most important thing in endurance driving is to get into a rhythm, and I was concentrating on keeping every lap within a second of the target time,” Quinn said.
The winning car:
· covered a total of 1318.8km at an average speed of 138.5km/h;
· made six scheduled pit stops at approximately 70-lap intervals;
· consumed four sets of tyres; and
· had four driver changes (Klark Quinn had one single and one double stint; Stefan Webling had one double stint, and Tony Quinn had two single stints).
RESULTS
1. Klark Quinn/Tony Quinn/Stefan Webling (Porsche 997 RSR) 471 laps
2. Malcolm Niall/Brett Niall/Clint Harvey (Porsche 997 GT3) 442 laps
3. Denis Roderick/David Glasson/Aaron Harris (Porsche 996 TT) 436 laps
