Team NZ Motorsport is pleased to announce its participation in the new Asian LMS Sprint Cup, which kicks off at Sepang International Circuit on 27-29 May. We plan to compete in all three events that comprise the inaugural series.
The Asian Le Mans Series Sprint Cup is a new initiative from the ACO and is reserved for LMP3, CN and GT Cup cars. The events will feature two 1-hour long races with pitstops and driver changes and all three rounds this year will take place at Sepang International Circuit, on 27-29 May, 5-7 August and 2-4 September respectively.
The Sprint Cup is open to Bronze and Silver level drivers only and that meant the new concept resonated as soon as we took a closer look. While we are an amateur status team, we are certainly results driven and there’s a highly ambitious streak running right through Team NZ Motorsport as we focus on achieving a professional level, but we also never loose sight of the fact that we race because we love the sport and the desire to compete. The new Sprint Cup is an exciting platform for us as it offers a level playing field to amateur teams and drivers.
For the opening round the weekend after next team co-owners and regular drivers, Graeme Dowsett and John Curran, will form the line up in the cockpit of the #77 Porsche 997 GT3 Cup and certainly both know Sepang very well, they have racked up a lot of racing time here and we have already enjoyed plenty of high level successes at this circuit.
For Team NZ Motorsport the Sprint Cup is thus an ideal fit for a year that had to be rejigged calendar-wise due to our Porsche requiring extensive work following the Bathurst 12 Hour in February and this new ‘summer series’ is an obvious programme choice. That major work means the car will be virtually like new.
In fact the Porsche will only arrive at Sepang from Australia a few days prior to the event, hence our late lodging of an entry has revolved around final shipping scheduling confirmation.
We regard Sepang as our ‘home’ circuit and have enjoyed some fantastic success here since we team started racing GT level cars three years ago. We won the competitive ‘GT Cup’ class on our debut in the prestigious Sepang 12 Hours in 2014 and followed that up by finishing as runners up last year. John and Graeme have also raced previously in selected MSS races at Sepang.
The Asian LMS Sprint Cup will denote the main part of our 2016 season getting underway. The year however kicked off with our debut in the Bathurst 12 Hour, a truly dramatic race that saw us finishing in a podium position. In fact our three endurance race participations so far have netted us three podium finishes, results that emphasise the solidity, strength and professionalism we have already embedded into our young team.
Following the conclusion of the Asian LMS Sprint Cup weekend Team NZ Motorsport will remain at Sepang for two days of private testing (Monday 30 and Tuesday 31 May).ng track.”
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