Christchurch’s Marco Schelp looked like he was on easy-street almost cruising to his second victory in the 2019 Carter’s Tyres South Island Endurance Championship One Hour series at Timaru on Saturday. With less than 15 minutes remaining, the top three runners made their compulsory pitstops, which saw the overall points series leaders, Chris and Johnny Small (Porsche 997 GT3 Cup), jump Schelp (Porsche Cup S) for the race lead.
Schelp was able to respond and eventually regained the lead with minimal time left, taking the checkered flag ahead of the Small Porsche with Jarrod Owens (Porsche Cup S) third.
“I was quite worried as they (Small’s Porsche) were very quick in the pitstop,” commented Schelp. “It was very busy out there with all the traffic. It is mentally exhausting, there is no ‘free’ lap except for the very beginning (of the race).”
The Small brothers did enough to extend their overall points lead to 13, ahead of rival Jarrod Owens with just the Christchurch round remaining in a fortnight’s time.
“We’re really happy with our result today,” said Johnny Small. “We came here with the aim of beating Jarrod (Owens). It would have been nice to beat Marco (Schelp) but he is a top driver and he showed that today. He is extremely fast and aggressive, so I take my hat off to him. Congrats to Jarrod as well on his podium.”
Within the overall championship there are four separate Class titles. First home in Class A (0-2000cc) was Daniel Crop (Honda Civic SIR) ahead of the Lotus Exige of Mark Meadows. Tim Dossett (Honda Civic EF) has a one point advantage over Meadows heading to the final round with Andrew Kitching (Honda Civic) 12-points off the lead. .
Jordan Michels was first home in Class B (2001-3500cc) despite a failing power steering unit in the closing stages of the race. Competing in his new Honda Civic Type R FR7 TCR car, Michels has now been first Class B car home in all three rounds extending his lead to 23-points over the Dennis and Debbie Chapman Audi RS3 LMS TCR. Michels near-perfect run at Timaru saw him as high as eighth overall and first non-Porsche car in the field. Despite the mechanical hindrance he was able to coast to the finish in 12th overall.
First in Class C (+3501cc) and first non-Porsche car home in eighth overall was the Chev Corvette of Bruce Davidson ahead of the Nissan R32 GTR of Mark and Karl Beeby. There are just five points between them heading to the final round.
The Porsche marque dominate Class D (GT type) with nine cars in total. The first seven cars home in the category, led by Schelp, were also the first seven overall. The Small’s have a 13-point advantage over Owens with Allan Dippie/Scott O’Donnell 21-points off the lead. Despite his two race wins, Schelp is eighth in Class D having missed the opening round where he competed in the Three Hour race.
Thirty-five cars took to the track for the 60-minute race which went without any major incident or safety car period. Schelp broke the 2018 race record of 1:008.736, held by Matt Whittaker (Porsche 991 Cup) by over nine seconds.
The One Hour Series finale takes place at the Mike Pero Motorsport Park in Christchurch 2 November with a maximum of 75-points on the line for both a race and Class win. All titles will be decided at the fourth round in a championship where finishing and gaining points is imperative.
Race results
Position, #, Driver 1, Driver 2, Car, Class
1 9 Marco Schelp Porsche Cup S D
2 17 Chris Small/Johnny Small Porsche 997 GT3 Cup D
3 13 Jarrod Owens Prosche GT3 Cup S D
4 991 Martin Dippie Porsche 991 GT3 Cup D
5 911 Allan Dippie/Scott O’Donnell Porsche GT3 Cup D
6 818 Jonas Paterson Porsche 991 GT3 Cup D
7 997 Chris Nicholas Porsche 991 GT3 Cup D
8 35 Bruce Davidson Chev Corvette C6R C
9 8 Danny Whiting Porsche GT3 Cup Car D
10 148 Ben Derrick/Garry Derrick Porsche 996 D
11 55 Steve Scoles Ginetta G55 D
12 28 Jordan Michels Honda Civic Type R FR7 B
13 56 Daniel Cropp Honda Civic SIR A
14 25 John Wadsworth Cheve Cruze D
15 75 Lindsay O’Donnell McLaren 570 GT4 D
16 711 Murray Beeby/Karl Beeby Nissan R32 GTR C
17 115 Mark Meadows Lotus Exige A
18 32 Stuart Black/Arron Black BMW E46 WTC A
19 119 Tim Dossett Honda Civic A
20 176 Andrew Kitching Andrew Bartlett Honda Civic A
21 223 Dennis Chapman Debbie Chapman Audi TCR LMS RS3 B
22 36 Nick Archibald Subaru WRX Sti B
23 181 Daniel Taylor Mazda RX8 B
24 117 Brayden Phillips Ford Falcon C
25 111 Matthew O’Donnell BMW M1 GTR B
26 98 Connor Sutherland Peter Sutherland Honda Civic A
27 131 Flyn Mitchell Mazda RX8 B
28 11 Robert Gjaja Lotus Exige B
29 199 Marcus Barnett/Brad Rule Honda Type R A
30 85 Scott Milne Mini Cooper S B
31 60 Art Markus Toyota Starlet KP60 A
32 141 Andrew Wright Toyota 86 A
33 47 Cameron Davies Mazda RX8 B
DNF 45 Mal Walters Mazda RX7 B
DNF 64 Clark Scott Jim Boult Honda Integra Type R A
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