Luke Manson and James Penrose (2023 Audi R8 LMS Evo 2) have won the opening round of the Three-Hour 2024 North Island Endurance Series held at Hampton Downs on Saturday. Second home was another Audi R8 (2019 LMS) driven by Sam Fillmore and Jonny Reid with the Steve Brooks/Bill Riding 2017 Audi R8 LMS in third.
Fourth home were Glenn Smith,/John De Veth/Damon Leitch (2012 McLaren 650S) ahead of the 2016 Lamborghini Huracan EVO spec car shared by Glen Brazier and Andrew Waite.
Paul Rickerby/Graham Rhodes (2018 MARC Mustang were sixth overall, winning Class 2 after Simon Gilbertson/John McIntyre’s Porsche 991 GT3 caught fire mid-race.
Steph Chambers and Mitchell Hutchinson were seventh in their 2001 Porsche 996 GT3 winning Class 3.
One- Hour
The One-Hour race was won by Joel Giddy (Mercedes AMG GT2) with Hunter Robb (Porsche 991 GT3) in second and Paul Southam (Porsche 992 GT3) third.
Unfortunately, the very quick Rhys Gould (IRC GT Mustang) clashed with Jacob van het Wout’s McLaren 570S GT4 which brought out the Safety Car with 12 minutes remaining in the race. While under yellow, the leader at the time Seb Manson (Porsche 992 GT3), was taken out by another competitor who also clipped the Safety Car resulting in the race finishing under caution.
Brent Forman (McLaren 570S GT4) was the Class 3 winner, ahead of Oliver Saxton (2016 Porsche Cayman) and David Cranna (McLaren 570S GT4).
Pel Arnott (Hyundai i30N TCR) won Class 4 from Grant Baguley (BMW M3) and Brett Celliers (Subaru Impreza WRX) while Chris Wall (Honda Civic) beat home Tania Jones (BMW 318ti) in Class 5.
The North Island Endurance Series returns for Round 2 at Taupo International Motorsport Park on May 25.
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