It all came down to the final race in the BNT V8 SuperTourer NZ Series at Pukekohe Park Raceway over the weekend with fifth place enough to earn International Motorsport pair Ant Pedersen and Chaz Mostert the 2013 Enduro Series win but not quite enough for the Drivers’ championship double.
Pedersen went into the weekend’s final with the points lead in the Drivers’ standings but eventual winner Greg Murphy wrested it back – albeit by just one point – when he and his co-driver, Jack Perkins, finished two places ahead of the J.A.Russell-backed Pedersen/Mostert Falcon in the sprint race on Saturday.
The pendulum swung back in the International Motorsport pair’s favour after a cannier strategy and quicker pit stops saw Pedersen and Mostert finish two places ahead of Murphy and Perkins in the first of the series’ 70-lap ‘fuel-stop’ races on Sunday morning.
And though Perkins grabbed an early advantage over Mostert at the start of the second 70-lapper in the afternoon it was still anyone’s race until Mostert pitted to hand over to Pedersen.
While Pedersen remained just one place behind Murphy on the road both titles (Enduro and Drivers’) were his. But if even one car was able to split the pair, the Drivers’ title would go to Murphy.
And that is effectively what happened.
Though Pedersen was able to match the veteran V8 driver’s times early on it was at the expense of his rear tyres. As they lost grip Pedersen slowly slipped back down through the field, losing the first spot to hard-charging eventual race winner Scott McLaughlin, a second to Richard Moore, then another two in the dying stages of the race to Andre Heimgartner and Tim Edgell.
Murphy, on the other hand, was able to maintain second place to the flag, the extra points on offer guaranteeing him the Drivers’ title for 2013 by 28 points from Pedersen with pole-setter and Saturday sprint race co-winner Shane van Gisbergen third.
Afterwards Pedersen described missing out on the Enduro/Drivers’ double as a lost opportunity. Not just for himself either.
“I wanted that title for the team, for our sponsors, for Jessie and my family, ” he said. “I’m so grateful for their help and support and I would have loved to have won the main title for all of them.”
It can’t have been easy for Chaz Mostert back in the pits, eyes glued to the TV monitor as he watched Pedersen slip down the order in the final.
“I’m disappointed for Ant, obviously, because he has done a great job all season but at the same time,” said the 21-year-old Australian V8 Supercar ace, “I’m also very happy that both of us won the Enduro championship. To win that means that we must be the best pairing in the series.
“I think you’ve got to look at what you have got here too; elsewhere there would be guys killing to be in a situation where a couple of guys like Ant and I can win an Enduro championship and finish second in the Drivers’ standings. I’ve been there, I’ve been the guy in the mid-field dreaming of the day of just being on the podium let alone winning so I know what it’s like.”
International Motorsport team manager Nick Williamson agrees, adding;
“We couldn’t have asked for more from either Ant or Chaz, or anyone else in the team for that matter, this weekend. But the result, in the end, didn’t quite go our way.
“However, from a series’ perspective it was the perfect final with the result going right down to the wire, and for us winning both the Endurance and the Teams’ titles takes some of the sting away from just missing out on the Drivers’ one.”
