Multi-million dollar field set for opening Rodin Cars Super GT Series round at Highlands

Twenty-seven GT cars worth in excess of $15m will hit the Highlands Motorsport Park circuit at Cromwell this weekend, for the opening round of the new Rodin Cars Super GT Series.

One of the biggest assemblies of GT machines in quite some time for New Zealand motorsport, the new series is set to race at four circuits over the summer.

“The assortment of GT machinery that we have managed to gather together is just incredible,” says Rodin Cars Super GT Category Manager, Grant Smith.

“We have cars from Porsche, Aston Martin, McLaren and Ginetta, with some other makes expected to join the series in the following rounds – it’s going to be quite a spectacle for fans over the summer to see these incredible cars across a number of New Zealand circuits.”

The Rodin Cars Super GT Series is split into two classes, the GT4 class, and the Porsche Cup class.

With British car manufacturers dominating the field – headlining the 14-car GT4 class is no more than six McLaren 570S GT4 machines.

Former marathon Jet Boat racer Nigel Cromie will campaign his new 570, as too will be long time rallying front-runner Todd Bawden.

Past BMW Series competitor, Brent Forman will campaign his newly acquired McLaren – and plans on being at the front of the McLaren pack come race day, and look for relative racing newcomers David Cremer, Francois Beziac, and David Cranna in their respective McLaren cars.

Rounding out the British manufactured contingent of cars, there will be two stunning Aston Martin GT4 cars from Shane Helms and Stephen Harrison, while three Ginetta G55’s are entered from Allan Sargeant, Adam Julian and Steve Scoles.

The rest of the GT4 Class sees three of the German Porsche Cayman GT4 cars lining up from Heremana Malmezac, David Rogers and Grant Aitken.

Having clocked up 55 seasons of motorsport competition and having campaigned a number of Porsche GT4 cars in recent years, Aitken will line up on the grid in a brand new Porsche 718 Cayman GT4.

For the Porsche Cup Class, the entry list for round one at Highlands is comprised of thirteen Porsche 997 and 991 machines.

Seasoned Porsche racer, Paul Kelly of Christchurch will race his newly acquired 991.2 Cup Car and will be challenged by rising young stars in the form of Lochlainn Fitzgerald-Symes and Connor Adam. Also, watch for Gene Rollinson who is a late entry in a Porsche 997 car.

The remainder of the field sees Ben Byers, Steve Sullivan, Rob Steele, Gary Derrick, Martin Neil, Shane Hodgson, Chris Nicholas, Martin Dippie and Rob Williams all line up in their respective Porsche machines.

Each round will feature two 30-minute races along with one 60-minute race, all with a compulsory pit stop.

To ensure parity between the three different classes of racing, there will be a Balance Of Performance criteria added to each of the races.

The 2021-2022 Super GT Championship will consist of a four-round series over three months commencing January 15, 2022, at Highlands in Cromwell.

This will be followed by the second round at the Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Rupauna in Christchurch on January 22, before heading to Hampton Downs on February 12. The final round will be in Taupo on March 26, 2022.

	DRIVER	CAR	RACE NUMBER
1	Shane Helms	Aston Martin GT4	77
2	Stephen Harrison	Aston Martin GT4	78
3	Allan Sargeant	Ginetta G55 GT4	107
4	Adam Julian	Ginetta G55 GT4	84
5	Brent Forman	McLaren 570S GT4	36
6	David Cremer	McLaren 570S GT4	62
7	Francois Beziac	McLaren 570S GT4	71
8	Nigel Cromie	McLaren 570S GT4	24
9	Todd Bawden	McLaren 570S GT4	44
10	David Cranna	McLaren 570S GT4	54
11	Ben Byers	Porsche 991	256
12	Steve Sullivan	Porsche 991	69
13	Martin Dippie	Porsche 991.2	991
14	Paul Kelly	Porsche 991.2	90
15	Rob Steele	Porsche 991.2	35
16	Garry Derrick	Porsche 991.2	148
17	Lochlainn Fitzgerald-Symes	Porsche 997	26
18	Connor Adam	Porsche 997	9
19	Martin Neill	Porsche 997	185
20	Shane Hodgson	Porsche 997	19
21	Chris Nicholas	Porsche 997	997
22	Rob Williams	Porsche 997	15
23	Heremana Malmezac	Porsche Cayman GT4	42
24	Grant Aitken	Porsche Cayman GT4	10
25	David Rogers	Porsche Cayman GT4	61
26	Steve Scoles	Ginetta G55 GT4	58
27	Gene Rollinson	Porsche 997	TBA