Highlands Motorsport Park owner Tony Quinn faced the interesting quandary of how to present himself – as the winner of the inaugural Highlands 101 race with co-driver Kiwi star Fabian Coulthard – with the trophy that he commissioned as the event promoter and race track owner.
In fact, Quinn was 100 per cent in race-mode for the feature race of the first major meeting to be run at the seven-month-old Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell, Otago. Together with Coulthard, Quinn led for the final 25 laps to win by a 34 second margin in their Darrell Lea Aston Martin over second-placed crew Australians Rod Salmon, Liam Talbot and Jason Bright in an Audi R8. Another Australian crew Peter Edwards and legend John Bowe took third in a Ferrari, just over a minute back after three hours and two minutes of racing in New Zealand’s newest endurance race.
Next best of the New Zealanders was Greg Murphy driving with Australian motorsport commentator Neil Crompton in the Highlands McLaren MP4-12C who finished fifth. The first all-Kiwi pairing were young guns Andrew Waite and Simon Evans who took sixth in the International Motorsport-run Highlands-owned Aston.
The potential entry list for the Highlands 101 wasn’t known until late Saturday where the fastest 42 cars from Saturday’s races had the option of contesting the race. As expected, the Australian GT Championship cars, which were racing in New Zealand for the first time, dominated the front of the field with 16 of the exotic cars in the entry list. Seventeen of a possible 26 cars from the diverse 1-Hour and 3-Hour South Island Endurance Series fields elected to enter, making a 33-strong starting grid.
Quinn said: “It’s always satisfying to win any race, but it’s obviously mixed for me because some people might think it’s stacked in my favour in some way. You know, I chose to drive with the Kiwi guys like Fabian – they’re very genuine and always try their best.”
Earlier in the day, qualifying honours went to Kiwi star Craig Baird who partnered Quinn’s son Klark in the VIP Petfoods Porsche GT3, setting a time of one minute, 35.291 seconds. Murphy and Coulthard were second and third quickest respectively.
The 33 starters then tackled a modern take on the Le Mans start where each team put their starting driver into the car to form up in the starting order on the track, then spectators enjoyed a 20 minute grid walk among the cars. Once the track was cleared, drivers completed two warm-up laps before angle-parking in qualifying order along pit lane. The co-drivers, in their race suit but not helmet, were arranged 250 metres away from their car before sprinting along pit lane to their car. Once they’d removed a ribbon from the back of their car and held it clear for the team manager to see, the driver was signalled to start.
The young Auckland pair Waite and Evans won the start, with the obviously very fast Waite jokingly referring to himself as ‘Usain Bolt’ on social media.
Once the race was underway the lead changed several times – from Evans and Waite early on to Klark Quinn and Baird before Andrew Taplin and Dean Canto in a Ferrari had two long stints at the front. Murphy and Crompton took a turn before Tony Quinn and Coulthard came to the fore and held the lead to the end. Each team had to make two compulsory pit stops and at least one driver change; all had to refuel and most changed tyres. Just 21 cars finished with the best of the South Island Endurance racers Rick Armstrong and Matthew Hamilton in a Porsche.
Unusually among the non-finishers, Baird had just set the fastest lap of the race before a racing incident with a slower car, under the bridge, took him out of the race.
Another New Zealand V8 Supercar competitor Shane Van Gisbergen was meant to be in the Highlands 101 line-up with Dwayne Carter, the pair having won Saturday’s final South Island Endurance 3-Hour Race. However a cracked diff housing in their Carters Tyres-backed V8 Falcon relegated the pair to the spectator seating.
Van Gisbergen said: “It’s the first time I’ve raced here and the first time I’ve raced this kind of mixed class endurance race [referring to the South Island Endurance Series race]. Carters Tyres support my V8SuperTourer racing so it was great to join them in the Carters Falcon. There was lots of traffic to contend with in yesterday’s race but great to take the win. The track’s fantastic and Tony and the team have done an amazing job. The start of the 101 was certainly different and it’s a shame we didn’t race today.”
The day’s action also saw Angus Fogg also became the first-ever points-leader of the new Toyota Finance TR86 Championship today, after winning two out of three races over the weekend.
Sunday’s spectator numbers created another record at the multi-purpose venue with close to 12,000 coming through the gates to add to Saturday’s approximate 11,000 and Friday’s 5,000. Fans enjoyed top-class motor racing and other on-track entertainment from motorbike stunt riders, rally cars and more, and made comments on social media such as: “A fantastic weekend, Cromwell is very lucky to have you [Highlands] part of our town” and “I love it and don’t want to go home to Sydney”.
As an event promoter, Quinn was delighted with the work done by the small Highlands’ team. “The biggest worry was we knew we’d be judged from this first event, so it was very important for Highlands to put on a good show. Everyone associated with the Australian GT Championship was blown away. I can tell you sincerely that less than 10 per cent of them had been to Queenstown before and there’s not one of them who’s said they’re not coming back. They absolutely loved it and they haven’t even tried the wine yet.”
In January next year, Highlands Motorsport Park joins New Zealand’s traditional summer motorsport series. The 25 to 26 January fixture sees the V8SuperTourers take equal billing with the Toyota Racing Series single seaters. Also joining the line-up are the NZ V8 Utes and Central Muscle Cars.
Fans can keep up with news and events from Highlands Motorsport Park by signing up for free e-newsletters via the website, www.highlands.co.nz, or following Highlands on Facebook and/or Twitter.
