Hugh Gardiner has continued to set the benchmark for the One Hour Carters Tyres South Island Endurance Series which got underway in Invercargill over the weekend. At the Teretonga Park circuit, the Porsche driver set fastest lap in qualifying and then went on to lead from lights to flag, winning from the home built Toyota AE86 V8 of Chris Henderson and the Porsche of local drivers Allan Dippie/Scott O’Donnell Porsche.
Gardiner was not really challenged over the 60 minutes of racing, also winning the GT class. Henderson won Class 1 (3500cc+) and was also unchallenged, particularly after his major opposition Brian Scott (Corvette C5) lost engine power while the other Corvette of Bruce Davidson had a coming together with a wall in qualifying earlier in the day.. Second in class and sixth overall was the brother pairing of Johnny and Chris Small (Skyline R32 GT-R) from Timaru. Jonny Small has recently made the switch from motorcycle and this was their first outing in endurance racing.
Andrew Wright (BMW E36) won Class 2 (2001-3500cc) finishing seventh overall, one place ahead of the Class 3 (0-2000cc) winner Daniel Crop (Honda Civic). Crop, who won the 2015 Class 3 NZ title earlier in the year suffered a broken camshaft in Friday’s practice. As luck would have it there was no other damage to the engine and successful repairs saw him take the grid on Saturday morning.
Fourth overall was the Porsche 997 of Jarrod Owens from Canterbury. This was Owens first taste of endurance racing. The Grant Williams/Brent Buist V8 SuperTourer threat in the GT class never eventuated with engine problems ending their chances after just 17 laps.
The hard luck storey would have to go to Stu Black (Toyota Starlet). While he proved to be very quick, on the last lap Black went off into the sand trap registering a ‘did not finish’.
The Carters Tyres One Hour Race Series then heads to Mike Pero Ruapuna, Christchurch on October 1st before the grand finale at Levels Raceway, Timaru on 15th October.
