They came, they saw and with yet another virtually flawless performance, Mal Chamberlain and co-drivers David & Nathan Cox (Team Assassin Racing Mazda 3) claimed not one but two of the freshly-minted AASA New Zealand Endurance Race Champioship titles up for grabs at the final round of the Auckland-based NaZCAR sanctioning body’s new Pro Series at Pukekohe’s Pukekohe Park Raceway on Saturday (August 20).
Despite running one of the smaller, and – definitely – lower powered cars in the 30-strong field, the trio topped their (time-banded) Class (4) in both the 3Hr and the 6Hr races and again beat out all-comers to win the prestigious Index of Efficiency (IoE) award in both races – for the fifth (out of six) time(s).
The sharp-shooting Team Assassin trio were not the only combination to leave the soon-to-be shuttered Pukekohe Park venue after Saturday’s combined 3 and 6 Hr race with at least one new NZ title to their name, either.
West Auckland mates, Karl Gaines and Lance Gerlach (Team Stickman Class 2 BMW E36 coupe) were the other combination to drive away with two AASA National Championship titles thanks to closing off their six Class (2) wins from six starts record (across both 3 & 6 Hr races) at Pukekohe Park on Saturday.
The other title winners were split between the two (3 & 6 Hr) race categories with series-long Class1 combatants Reece Hendl-Cox, Lee Zeltwanger and Cullern Thorby (Team Super Mates Racing BMW 328ti Compact) and Garry Cammock and Michael Jane (Team Mag Motorsport BMW E36 coupe) claiming class titles apiece in the 3 Hr (Hendl-Cox et al) and 6 Hr (Cammock & Jane) categories .
A breakthrough Class (3) win at Pukekohe Park Raceway was enough to earn Justin Weir, Brad Hall and Gregor Clarke of Team Wheelie Racing their first bona fide national championsip title in the 6 Hr race.
Meanwhile class wins at the first two Pro Series rounds were just enough to earn Chris O’Driscoll, Mathew Randell, Mike Shutes and Michael Satherley (Team 24 Red Racing Honda Civic) the NZ 3 Hr title in Class 3 despite hot competition seeing the foursome finishing just shy of the podium (4th) in both 3 & 6 Hr races at the Pukekohe final on Saturday.
Fortunately, the worst of the ‘heavy rain showers in the morning, turning to light rain in the afternoon’ forecast for the Pukekohe area on Saturday simply did not eventuate. The day – and with it the track surface – remained very cold, however, with the slick track claiming several early scalps.
Since kicking off his own involvement in motorsport in this country with the first wacky, budget-based ‘LeMons 24 Hour’ event at the Hampton Downs circuit in northern Waikato in 2016, the new budget car/driver-friendly 3 & 6 Hr. Pro Series, Auckland-based motor racing entrepreneur Dr Jacob Simonsen has – with the help of a small but dedicated group of volunteers – created his own self-contained long-distance racing ‘world’ for ordinary, everyday Kiwis to enjoy.
The first step in that journey was setting up an alternative event sanctioning and driver licensing body to the incumbent, MotorSport NZ. That body, the Australasian Autosport Alliance (AASA) is a 100% NZ-owned agency of the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance, and has been successfully sanctioning, permitting, and licensing all LeMons, NaZCAR as well as Ultimate Rally Group (Targa NZ) and other motorsport events for the past five years.
The second step was to establish an ‘identity’ for the events he wanted to run here. From that desire came the creation of the distinctive NZ-focused NaZCAR brand plus the new Pro Series, originally described as a ‘no-nonsense multiple distance/time endurance championship ‘without the silly themes/penalties of a typical LeMons-style event.’
Such was the response when he first uploaded details and projected event dates to his NaZCAR website early last year that Dr Simonsen says that even then he realized he was ‘on to something.’
Now that his first full AASA NZ title Pro Series is done and dusted for the year, Dr. Simonsen’s laser-like focus is now fixed firmly on ‘the biggie,’ the 2022 continuous 24 hour LeMons event being run for the first time this year on the full international circuit at Hampton Downs.
With over 100 teams and 600 drivers already registered to contest it, the continuous 24 Hr race on September 16 & 17 looks set to be the largest participatory motorsport event New Zealand has ever seen!
Being the biggest is, of course, all very well.
“I want it,” says Dr Simonsen, “to be ‘the best!”
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