National champ clashes with Duff
Saturday night at Ruapuna Speedway sees the appearance of national sprintcar champion Jamie Larsen who is expected to boost the field in the Quake City Stampede.
There will be plenty of interest in his clash with the local favourite Jamie Duff. Duff had been one of the top qualifiers at the New Zealand Sprintcar Championship in January, until he fell victim to a contentious call from officials which saw him side-lined early in that race.
Also on the programme is the 55th running of the South Island Midget Car Championship.
Seven times champion David Kerr will be hopeful that his recent engine issues will be resolved. His toughest opposition is likely to come from Gary Chadwick who won the CTRA sanctioned Midget Nationals and is leading the Southern Midget Series.
With just one more night to go after Saturday’s meeting there will be plenty of interest in the supporting races.
These include the annual TQ 20 Lap Southern Derby, the Six Shooter Grand Prix, Canterbury Sidecar Clay Track Championship and the annual Modified Sprint Clay Cup that has attracted 16 entries, including a healthy representation from Invercargill.
Due to the congested programme, Saturday night’s show starts at 6pm. Plenty of action overseas In the USA three Kiwi drivers featured in the Sebring 12 Hour endurance race.
While both WEC driver Brendon Hartley (Patro´ n ESM Nissan Dpi) and Supercars driver Shane van Gisbergen (Mercedes-Benz GT3) both retired from the race, IndyCar driver Scott Dixon (#67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT) came agonizingly close to a podium finish in the GT Le Mans class.
Having teamed up with Australian Ryan Briscoe and Englishman Richard Westbrook, their car was passed on the last lap by Risi Competizione’s James Calado (Ferrari) to take third.
At the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia Taylor Cockerton successfully tested a Formula Masters China Series car.
Further north, in Shanghai were Chris van der Drift and Will Bamber, brother of Porsche WEC factory driver and 2015 Le Mans 24 Hour champion Earl Bamber. Both were testing for the 2017 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia series.
In Japan, two Kiwi drivers were testing at the Okayama Circuit in the Super GT Series. Nick Cassidy was the fastest driver in the GT500 Class in the factory backed Lexus LC 500 while Jono Lester was fourth quickest in the GT300 Class driving a Porsche.
Back home the freshly imported 2016 Audi R8 LMS in the hands of Simon Evans and Gene Rollison cleaned up at the Three Hour NZ Endurance Championship title race last weekend. Such was the victory that the car has raised the game and is likely to dominate both this year’s North and South Island Endurance Series.
Meanwhile the announcement has been made that WRC driver Hayden Paddon will have a new co-driver after Rally Finland in July.
Seb Marshall will take over from John Kennard who has been with Paddon for 12 years. It has been well known in rally circles that Kennard would vacant the seat sooner rather than later.