One of the biggest fields the Carter’s Tyres Service South Island Endurance Series has seen will take to the Highlands Motorsport Park grid in Cromwell for the One-Hour series this Saturday morning. Such is the enthusiasm for the One-Hour competition, organisers are staging two separate races incorporating the different classes with approximately a total of 60 entries.
Timed to go at 10:20am, Saturday 2 October, will be the race for Class A (0-2000cc) and B (2001-3500cc). Back to defend his Class A title will be Andrew Gibson who will team up again with Paul Booth in a Honda Civic EF. They will face some serious competition from Brad Rule (Honda Civic) and Tim Dossett (Honda Civic).
Also, defending her Class B title is Debbie Chapman (Audi RS3 LMS TCR) who will come up against some stiff competition including husband Dennis (Audi RS3 LMS TCR) and Scott O’Donnell in the ex-Hayden Paddon Hyundai i30N TCR, while both Marcus Barnett (Seat TCR) and Steven Kelly (BMW E46 M3 GTR) may be a surprise along with Daniel Cropp in his repowered 2.4 litre Honda Civic. Rally young-gun Ari Pettigrew is also entered in the Class piloting a Fiat Abarth 1400cc turbo.
The second One-Hour race, timed to go at 11:40am, is likely to see some of the best action at the round coming from Class C (>3501cc) and Class D (GT) with an extremely competitive line up of entries. Returning to defend his overall One-Hour and Class D title is Martin Dippie (Porsche 991.1 Cup). Also vying for line honours are 16 other Porsche entries including national One-Hour champion, Marcus Schelp (Porsche GT3 Cup S), Garry and Ben Derrick (Porsche 991.2), Ben Byers in the latest Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup, the return of the 2019 title holders Johnny and Chris Small (Porsche 991.2), Jarod Owens (Porsche GT3 997 Cup) Ryan Wood (Porsche 991) and Allan Dippie (Porsche 911 Cup S).
Add into the mix will be a strong Class C with previous Class B winner, Jordan Michels, debuting a Ford Focus Coyote V8 powered MARC as odds-on favourite. He will be up against the likes of previous One-Hour title holder Chris Henderson (Toyota GT86 V8), last year’s runner up Bruce Davidson (Chev Corvette C6R), Grant Williams/Ben Williams (Toyota GT86 V8) and John Wadsworth (Chev Cruze).
Level 2 restrictions will be in place for the event with appropriate social distancing, segregated bubbles and a limited number of spectators allowed. Two trophies are on the line for the four-round series with a new trophy for the A&B title and the existing One-Hour trophy to be awarded for the C&D title.
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