Tony Quinn will be a busy man come the Highlands 101 endurance race meeting early in November and he’s enlisted the support of three-time Bathurst 1000 winner Garth Tander as he strives to take two victories – the Highlands 101 race win and the outright Australian GT Championship (AGT) title.
Quinn is the only winner of the two 101 format races run to date. The owner of Highlands Motorsport Park took victory in last November’s inaugural Highlands 101 race with Kiwi V8 Supercar star Fabian Coulthard. Then, driving with Tander, Quinn won the Phillip Island 101 race earlier this year when the 101-lap race length and Le Mans-style start were adopted for an AGT round in Australia.
“Winning the first Highlands 101 with Fabian was very cool,” says Quinn who’ll be driving the same 6-litre, V12 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 he’s piloted for the past two seasons, which now sports the VIP Petfoods’ colours.
“There’s no doubt that Garth and I will, unashamedly, be doing our best to make it very difficult for anyone else to win the 101 this year!”
Tander says he’s really looking forward to driving and racing at Highlands Motorsport Park.
“Having spoken to a few of the guys that were racing in the 101 last year, they said it is an amazing venue and a great track,” Tander says. “I think the 101 format works well. It allows for all levels of driver to compete against each other reasonable evenly. Basically when the ‘pro’ drivers like me compete, we can’t just come in and dominate, which is nice. It’s a bit like having a golf handicap.”
When asked whether it’s been decided which of the pair will start the race in the car or as the team’s runner, he responds: “Having only spent the one weekend racing with Tony, and it being very much his car and his championship position we are racing for, it’s all up to Tony, but I get the feeling I’ll be doing the running!”
Tander is also keen to see the array of new and proven GT cars in action during the high profile weekend of racing at Highlands. “I’m a massive car fan, so seeing the Bentley and Camaro up close will be very cool – especially the Camaro, as I have a ‘69 Chev Camaro for the road, so I’ll take a pretty close look at the new GT3 version.”
Quinn also has a strong chance of securing his maiden Australian GT Championship title at the final round of the six round series. The 57-year-old businessman is just 32 points shy of current series leader, professional racer Richard Muscat who pilots the Erebus Motorsport Mercedes-Benz AMG GT3.
“The Australian GT Championship is going right down to the wire. Young Richard Muscat thought he was going to win the championship quite easily then I won the round at Eastern Creek and again at Sandown which has taken him by surprise and now here I am, only 30-odd points behind him.” Quinn says with a broad grin. “There’s no doubt Richard’s a good driver, but the Erebus team and Mercedes have never been to Highlands and neither has Richard and he’s up against the old fellow who built the track!”
With recent news that Muscat will have Kiwi race star Craig Baird as his co-driver for the Highlands 101, Quinn concedes that Erebus Motorsport will gain considerable benefit from Baird’s experience on the circuit.
“After all, Bairdo set the original lap record of 1min 41.9 seconds. However although they have a very, very good car in the Mercedes, they haven’t yet got any data to rely on.
“It’s certainly going to be a battle royal between Aston Martin and Mercedes for Australian GT honours, one of several GT3 championships around the world and an important and far-reaching avenue for these prestigious brands.”
With the AGT competitors and their exotic race cars expected to make up the majority of the 42-strong Highlands 101 field, the Quinn-Tander Aston Martin and Muscat-Baird Mercedes-Benz will be taking on five Audi R8 LMS GT3s, three Lamborghini Gallardos, five different Ferrari models, one McLaren, seven Porsche 997s, the brand-new Bentley Continental GT3, two Ginetta G50 GT4s, and an Ascari KZR-1 GT3. The AGT series has four championship divisions – Australian GT Championship outright, Trophy, Challenge and GT Sports.
The Highlands 101 event takes place at the Highlands Motorsport Park near Cromwell, Central Otago over the weekend of 8 and 9 November. Tickets are available online from Ticket Direct or at the gate during the race weekend. See the website www.highlands.co.nz for further details on this event and all regular Highlands Motorsport Park attractions, or visit Highlands on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/HighlandsMotorsportPark.
