The ASKO Endurance Three Hour Series blasts into life this weekend with its annual trip to the world’s southernmost circuit at Teretonga Park, Invercargill for round One of its Series. The 2013 ASKO Series has been expanded and will this year be run over 4 rounds adding an extra dimension to this year’s series, where finishing races & scoring championship points will be the key to success.

With the fastest endurance cars in New Zealand heading South for the Series opener, it will be a sight to behold as household names such as Daniel Gaunt, John McIntyre, Johnny Reid and V8 Supercar regular Alex Davison line up for the season opener, with more stars set to join the series at future rounds.

The series is again elated to have ASKO Appliances as its naming rights sponsor and along with series sponsors Mobil 1, Hagley Aluminium, Paul Kelly Motor Company and Southern Finance they have managed to secure a significant prize money pool to pay out to series competitors. “We have $30,000 in cash that we will pay out across the classes in both the 3hr & 1hr Series” said series secretary Chris Dunn. “Plus we have a magnificent Norm Sinclair original painting valued around $10,000 and a set of new Michelin tyres, that will both be given away as a spot prizes and Vortex Racewear have also supported us with two full race-gear kits so it’s NZ’s biggest prize and prizemoney package.”

The Series is delighted with both the quality & quantity of entries; once again they have some really exciting new cars joining the Series. The series will also include every ASKO 3 hour Series champion since 2006, except one, returning and whilst in past years there have been some obvious favorite, for 2013 there are there are at least a dozen teams that are serious contenders with many others highly likely to surprise. “This series will be so close that I wouldn’t be prepared to wager even just $1 on a Series or race winner.” said Dunn. “But I am equally thrilled that we have enough 0-2000cc class cars to make a sizeable class because, to the Series, these cars are just as important as the fast guys.”

The battle for 3 Hour honors is likely to come from the exotic GT class, which is dominated by the Porsche marquee with 12 of the German machines set to take on the magnificent Ferrari 458 of Craig Innes/Sam McNeill and thundering ex-V8 SuperCar of Matt Carter/Dwayne Cater.  2011 & 2012 Series champion Paul Kelly (Porsche 997 GT3) leads the Porsche charge and again teams up with Daniel Gaunt, as he leads the sets his sights on an unprecedented third straight title, but they will have stiff competition from the two International Motorsport 997 GT3 entries of Alex Davison/Andrew Bagnall and Johnny Reid/Rick Armstrong. There have been new cars during the off season for Simon Ellingham/John McIntyre (997 GT3), Allan Dippe/Scott O’Donnell (997 GT3 Cup S) and past champions Angus McFarlane/Michael Bushell (997 GT3 Cup R) and add into the mix George McFarlane/Grant Silvester, Lindsay O’Donnell/Bruce Stewart and 12hr Champions Phil Hood/John DeVeth and Todd Murphy/Allan Rickerby all in 997 GT3’s and it will definitely be an enthralling duel.

With all the factory built race cars in the GT class, Class 1 (3501cc +) is dominated by the traditional Kiwi Hybrids and picking a class winner here is equally as impossible. 2012 Class champions Craig McDermid/Scott McDermid wont make the Teretonga round with their new car, but 2011 Class 1 Champions Graham Rhodes/Paul Rickerby are one of many teams who have undergone serious off-season development with their awesome Batman RX7 V8. Series regulars John Wadsworth/Warren Croft return with their 730hp VY Commodore and Teretonga will also see the debut of the Corvette C6R of Bruce Davidson/Dave Garden. Flying the Ford Flag is the Boss Mustang of Rick Cooper/Deon Cooper and Aussie based competitor Perry Scarfe who alongside Shane Hodgson will debut a new 7 litre powered BA Falcon, a similar car to North Island Team Dave Dovey/Andrew Bowler/Shane Wenzlick. The European influence in our Class 1 comes from the twin turbo BMW 135 of Carl & Steve Kirk-Bunnand and the BMW M3 GT4 of Warwick Mortimer/Andre/Mortimer.

A few of the Class 2 (2001cc -3500cc) cars could easily surprise, including the ex-WTCC BMW 320i of Arron Black/Stu Black plus Allan McCormick/David McCormick (BMW GTR) and the immaculate new M3 Turbo for Shane Helms/Rob Bolland. This class has a great mix of man and machinery including Toyota AE86 turbo’s for Pat Heagney/Ryan Heagney and Craig McDermid/Scott McDermid, Warren Good/Bryan Rusbatch (Mini Challenge), plus rally champ Chris West/Andrew Simms (Evo 9) who will both no doubt be looking for some Teretonga rain. However the real unknown in both Class 2 and the race could come from the pair of Seat Leon Supercopa’s for Kevin Gallichan/Sam Fillmore and Mike Driver/tba.

The final class is our combined class 3&4 (0-2000cc) which see s the return of 2011 Class winners Steve Parker/Matt Jackson (Honda s2000) who will take on the Ex- Kiwi Team Nurburgring Civic R of Paul Coghill/David Hunter as well as the factory built Renault Megane of Craig Russell/Bruin Beasley, the Corona of Grant Constable/Bill Currie and the ever reliable Peugeot 106 of Ken Sinclair/Dennis Ham who will keep everyone in the class honest through reliability if not speed.

After this weekends round at Teretonga, the ASKO Endurance Series moves to Powerbuilt Ruapuna, Christchurch on 5 October and then Levels Raceway, Timaru on 19 October before the Series grand finale and the new Highlands Park circuit in Cromwell on 9^th November, where the overall 3 Hour Series champion will be awarded the South Canterbury Toyota Cup.

Qualifying and the race are on Saturday 21^st September, wit the 3hr race expected to start around 1:30pm. With 37 cars scheduled to line up at Teretonga there are still a couple of entry spots still available for the Three Hour Series. 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