Neil Foster and Jonny Reid have won the 2018/19 Carters Tyre Service New Zealand Endurance Championship title at the Highlands Motorsport Park on Saturday. Foster (Audi R8 LMS GT3) who recently won the South Island Endurance Championship title teamed up with Reid for the winner-takes-all race in Cromwell and finished ahead of Tony Quinn/Andrew Waite (V12 Aston Martin Vantage GT3) with the Porsche 997 GT3R of George McFarlane/Jack Milligan third.
The race was set up for a thrilling finish with Waite leading Reid until a late safety car bunched the field up with less than half an hour to go. Reid was able to keep up the pressure on Waite, finally getting by with just 20 minutes left to race.
Notable retirements included the ITM MIKE Racing Mercedes AMG SLS GT3 of Brendon Leitch and Christina Orr with a failed CV joint in the last hour of racing. The 8 litre V8 SaReNi Camaro GT3+ of John McIntyre and Simon Gilbertson suffered electrical problems. The Wet n Forget SuperTourer of Simon Evans and Chris Hanley retired with an alternator issue.
Fourth across the line was the 760hp ex V8 Supercar VZ Commodore of Nick Chester & Cameron Jones with Marco Schelp/Andy Neale Porsche fifth.
Matt Carter wins One Hour title
Matt Carter has won the One Hour New Zealand Endurance Championship title at Highlands Motorsport Park. Pole position winner Matt Whittaker led for most of the race only to retire with less than 15 minutes to run.
South Island Endurance One Hour champion and weekend favourite Chris Henderson finished in 15th having started from the back of the grid after suffering mechanical issues in qualifying.
Marco Schelp in his ex-WTCC BMW E46 finshed second ahead of Jarrod Owens (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S) with Allan Dippie/Scott O’Donnell (Porsche 911 GT3 Cup S) fourth.
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