The 2015/2016 Laird Motorsport Southern Interclub Autocross Series gets underway this weekend with the first of three rounds taking place.
The series sees rounds hosted by the Eastern Southland Car Club, the Queenstown Car Club and the Southland Sports Car Club with the opening round on Saturday being the Eastern Southland Car Club event on grass near Balcutha (signposted from Peggydale south of the town). The second round will be the Queenstown Club’s event on gravel on Saturday 6 February with the third and final round, the Southland Sports Car Club’s sealed event on Sunday 3 April.
Last year’s series was particularly hard fought with Ian Warren of the Otago Sports Car Club in a Holden Barina GTi and Errol Hewlett of the Eastern Southland Car Club in a Toyota Starlet 4AGE sharing the title in their front wheel drive cars with 86 points apiece. The result was significant in that it was also the first time the series has been won by 2-wheel-drive cars.
The joint leader prior to the last round last year was Graham McRae of Gore (ESCC) who eventually claimed third in his Toyota Corolla GT with 82 points after a troubled final round. Gavin Read of Invercargill (ESCC) was the Class C winner and finished fourth overall on 70 points while two-time series champion Neville Krammer in a Subaru Legacy RS (ESCC) won Class D and finished fifth overall on 63 points.
Southland Sports Car Club members, Cameron Morrison of Invercargill (Nissan Pulsar) and Tyler James Titchmarsh (Nissan Pulsar/Mini Cooper) were second and third in Class C while Phil Terry of Invercargill (ESCC) in a Toyota Starlet 4wd Turbo and Roger Laird of Gore (ESCC) were second and third respectively in Class D. As the top three overall placegetters do not qualify for class placings, Class B was a Queenstown Car Club clean sweep with Geoff Clear (Suzuki Baleno) on 48 points winning from Alan Garrick (Toyota Levin) on 45 points and his son Hamish Garrick on 38 points.
Class A went to Hamish Roche of the Eastern Southland Club with 63 points in his last skid in his Barina before heading overseas ahead of Karen Laird (ESCC) and newcomer Michelle Harris (ESCC) on 46 points.
Ninety-three drivers scored points in the series with Eastern Southland Car Club winning with 1141 points ahead of Southland on 463, Queenstown 393 and Otago 112.
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