The Trass Family Motorsport Ferrari of Sam Fillmore and Danny Stutterd have won the 2016 Carter’s Tyres South Island Three Hour Endurance title after the final round was held at the Timaru International Raceway on Saturday. The win gives them their second endurance series title for 2016 having already won the Mahindra North Island Endurance Series held over the winter.
However, it was Dwayne Carter and Shane Hodgson in the Carter’s Mercedes that took the chequered flag, winning the round by just 12 seconds from the Tulloch Motorsport Camaro GT3 driven by John McIntyre and Simon Gilbertson.
It was the second win in the Series for the Carter’s Mercedes but a retirement from the opening round at Teretonga in Invercargill dropped them out of overall title contention. The TFM Ferrari won the first round, took a close second place at round two in Christchurch and placed third in Timaru, giving the team enough points to claim both the overall and GT Class titles.
The race on Saturday was interrupted early with a safety car intervention period with just over six laps completed. This was brought about after the Ferrari 458 of Tim O’Connor and Malcolm Niall went off at the ‘Esses’, hitting a wall.
This turned out to be a stroke of luck for the TFM Ferrari having previously spun, stalling the engine. It was about to be lapped by initial leader John McIntyre (Chev Camaro GT3), when the safety car for the O’Connor Ferrari incident came out. This backed up the field and gave the TFM Ferrari a chance to pit for fuel and re-join at the back of the field.
The Tulloch Motorsport Camaro dominated the first two hours of the race while the Carter’s Merc took control of the final third.
Fourth home was the Paul Kelly/Craig Baird Porsche. Two previous third placings at the Teretonga and Ruapuna rounds gave them third place overall behind the McIntyre/Gilbertson entry.
Fifth home was the Porsche of Scott O’Donnell/Allan Dippie, with Sue McLaughlin/Hugh Gardiner sixth.
Seventh home and first in Class 1 (>3501cc) was the twin turbo Supra powered Toyota 86 of Craig McDermid / Scott McDermid. The team had won Class honours at all three rounds and easily took the overall Class One title.
The Michael Driver/Phil Hood turbocharged Seat Leon Supercopa dominated Class 2 (2001-3500cc), also winning all three rounds and the Series Class 2 title.
First home in Class 3 (0-2000cc) was the Aaron Black/Stu Black BMW, also winning the overall Class 3 title.
Series co-ordinator Chris Dunn was thrilled with the level of competition over all three rounds. “We’ve had some great racing particularly with the GT class. The close racing during the last twenty minutes at the Ruapuna (second round) was a particular highlight. The Series continues to grow and there is already talk of more of the top GT cars coming into the country for this type of racing.”
Drivers and teams now look forward to the New Zealand Endurance title round which will be held 18 March 2017 at the Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Christchurch. Qualifying teams from both the South Island and the Mahindra North Island Endurance Series will fight it out for the national Three Hour Endurance title.
