The ASKO Appliances South Island Endurance Series hits Timaru’s Levels Raceway this Saturday with the makings of another great days racing as teams chase valuable series points in both overall and class standings. This Saturday’s two races will see teams battle it out in round two of the 3 Hour Series and the third & final round of the 1 Hour Series, where a champion will be crowned. With both race distance and lap records being smashed at both rounds so far this season, fans can be assured of some outstanding action on the tight and technical Levels circuit.

In the 3 Hour race the race winner is likely to come from the exotic GT class and there was a great battle at Teretonga between the Porsche 997 GT3’s of eventual Teretonga winners Paul Kelly/Daniel Gaunt and Andrew Bagnall/Ant Pedersen and Rick Armstrong/Matt Hamilton who filled the podium spots. Pole sitters Simon Ellingham/Jono Lester (997 GT3) came back well after a mid race trip to the gravel trap causing the only safety car period of the race, and Angus McFarlane/Michael Bushell displayed immense speed in their twin turbo 996 GT3 but eventually retired with gearbox issues. However there may well be an upset in the class with Sam MacNeill/Craig Innes looking to debut the brand new Ferrari 458 at this round having used their Ferrari F430 at Teretonga. The battle between the Porsche 996 Cup cars will also be a feature within this class with Allan/Dippie/Martin Dippie winning the 996 battle at Teretonga from Garry Cliff/Hayden Knighton. But the ASKO Appliances catch phrase “built to last”, will ring true as the old saying goes; to finish first, first you must finish and there are plenty of other cars of all shapes & sizes capable of challenging for the race win and championship standings.

And the battles will be just as fierce right through the field and in Class 1 (3501cc +) it was defending class champions Graeme Rhodes/Paul Rickerby (RX7 V8) that snatched the Teretonga class win by only one second from John Wadsworth/Warren Croft (Commodore VY) with the beautiful BMW 135i twin turbo of Todd Murphy/Shaun Varney 3rd in class. Looking for a better result at Levels will be the fastest of the Class 1 cars at Teretonga Craig McDermid/Scott McDermid (Corolla twin turbo) who suffered a CV failure during the race and also the tyre burning 427ci powered Falcon Ute of Perry Scarfe & Dean ‘Wildman’ Perkins who DNF’d on the last corner of the last lap. Unfortunately there is a late withdrawal from this class, with the much anticipated Ford GT from Rick Cooper/Dean Cooper out due to business commitments.

Class 2 (2001cc -3500cc) will see slightly less competition for Teretonga class winners Arron Black/Stu Black in the x-WTCC BMW 320i, with two of their main competitors out for Timaru. Brent Esler’s BMW GTr suffered major damage in a qualifying crash at Teretonga, and the similar car of Alan McCormick/David McCormick suffered an engine failure with only 15 mins to run. The battle in this class is now likely to be between the Black/Black BMW and the two beautiful Seat Leon Supacopa’s, one for dual NZ RX7 champion Jarrod Parmenter/Mike Driver and another for Richard Billington/Mark Hourigan. There will also be another great 4WD battle between the Mitsi Evo’s of Phil Gill/John Deveth and Andrew Simms/Chris West who will be joined by the Subaru WRX of John Petrie/Angus Petrie at Levels, plus the rapid Toyota AE86 Turbo of Pat Heagney/Ryan Heagney.

Also at Levels on Saturday will be the third and deciding race in the ASKO Appliances One Hour Race Series, where there are still 13 cars that still have a chance of winning the overall series. So far it is a win a piece for Paul Kelly (997 GT3) and Grant Williams/Brent Buist (RX7 V8), with the former leading the series due to Williams/Buist suffering diff failure at round one. The next three in the series are extremely close on points with George McFarlane/Grant Silvester (997 GT3), Peter van Eekelen (997 GT3) and Tim O’Connor (Ferrari 458) all ready to pounce should Kelly have even a slight issue. Also of interest in this Series will be the new NZV8 Commodore VE of Inky Tulloch which had an impressive debut at Teretonga and could easily be the surprise package at Levels.

The One Hour class placing are also far from being settled, with at least 3 or 4 cars in each class within striking distance for the class win. Class 2 (2001-3500cc) is lead by Chris White (BMW M3) from Grant Aitken who will be debuting his new Evo 10 at Levels and Graham McDermid (Mini Challenge).
Class 3 (1601-2000cc) is lead by the consistent BMW E30 of Anthony Tucker, who also leads the BMW E30 class standings, but in hot pursuit for Class 3 are Garry Cliff (Civic) and Dougal Macgibbon (Starlet S2000) who have taken a class win each, but are on the back foot after suffering mechanical issues during the series.

Class 4 (0-1600cc) is currently dominated by Toyota with Stu Black (Starlet) so far undefeated in class and leading from Jeremy Dawson (Starlet) and Bradley Dawson (Trueno). 4th in class is the wee Peugeot 106 of Ken Sinclair who has his Euro ranks bolstered at Levels with entries from 2 other Peugeot 106’s for Marc Mitchell and Tim Stanton.

After this Saturdays round at Levels, there is a chance to regroup before teams get to the final round of the Series, with the grand finale being held at Powerbuilt Ruapuna at the V8 SuperTourer enduro meeting on Saturday 24th November. The overall 3 Hour Series champion will be awarded the ‘South Canterbury Toyota Cup’, plus the Club has been donated an original watercolour painting by High Country artist Norman Sinclair valued at approx. $10,000-00 and a set of Michelin tyres that will both be given away as spot prizes to competitors in the series. Thanks to series sponsors Southern Finance, Paul Kelly Motor Company, Allied Lubricants, Hagley Aluminium and of course ASKO Appliances, the Series will have the richest prize money pool in NZ Motorsport, with $30,000- that will be paid out as prize money for the season. With $10,000- up for grabs for the overall 3 Hour Series winner, the balance will be paid out based on class points across both the 3 Hour and 1 Hour Series, ensuring that prizemoney is spread right through the field.

The series has a great number & variety of entries for the Levels round, but does still have grid space available for both the Three Hour and One Hour races. For more information on the South Island Endurance Series, entries, or to be added to the South Island Endurance Racing Drivers Club’s e-mailing list, please contact Chris Dunn via e-mail at sierdc@nullxtra.co.nz  ph 021-107-9293. Club information can also be found on facebook at www.facebook.com/sierdc, for more information on the series sponsor ASKO, please visit www.asko.co.nz