PITSTOP DIARY

Local Inky Tulloch and co-driver John McIntyre from Nelson are considered favourites for the opening round of the South Island Endurance Series that gets under way in Southland tomorrow. After winning the three round North Island Series held over the winter, the FIA GT3 SaReNi Camaro pairing will be up against some stiff opposition in the three-hour event at Teretonga Park Raceway. Defending champion Andrew Bagnall teams up with Rick Armstrong in the stunning new Audi R8 LMS Ultra. Other V8s expected to challenge include the ex-888 V8 SuperCar of Matt & Dwayne Cater, the V8 SuperTourer Commodore of V8ST regulars Simon McLennan/Richard Moore and the brand new space framed Chevy Cruise V8 of John Wadsworth/Warren Croft. Porsche are well represented with a 997 GT3 for Sam Fillmore/Danny Stutterd, a 997 Cup S for last year’s 3rd place finishers Allan Dippie/Scott O’Donnell, and the fully rebuilt 997 Cup R of Angus & George McFarlane.

The one hour series could be described as a real mixed bag with a large number of new cars. Porsche is again well represented with the twin turbo Porsche 996 of Mike Bushell/ Grant Silvester 997, the GT3’s of Phil Hood, Russell McKenzie, Sue McLaughlin, Danny Stutterd/Sam Fillmore and last year’s champion Hugh Gardiner. Danny Whiting debuts his 2015 spec Porsche 991 along with the new Audi R8 LMS Ultra of Neil Foster and Tim O’Connor returns with his Ferrari 458. After this weekend’s round at Teretonga, the series moves to Ruapuna, Christchurch on October 3 before the series grand finale at Levels Raceway, Timaru, on October 17. Ashley Forest Rally Sprint Local lad Matt Summerfield (Subaru) is favoured to retain his Ashley Forest Rallysprint title just north of Rangiora this weekend. His competition includes Rotorua’s Sloan Cox who makes his debut driving his Special Evo 8. Auckland’s David Thexton (Subaru) will be up against Mike Tall (Evo 4), Scott Jones (Evo 3) and Mike Wellington (Evo 6) from the South Island. Chris Hey of Mosgiel is looking for a sixth straight 2WD Unlimited class win in his 2200cc Toyota MR2. Now in its 36th year, the two-day event gets underway at 9:30am on both Saturday and Sunday. Many sign up for 2K Cup series Last season’s 2K Cup has proved to be highly successful and this year there are already over 90 entries. The concept of the circuit category is to race a standard road car worth no more than $2,000. A high number of drivers from last season have returned with many new to motorsport joining the series. Two favourite makes have been the Toyota Levin or Trueno and the Honda DC2 Integra, but drivers are encouraged to have different vehicles with several categories such as the ‘Taxi Cup’ for four doors, the ‘Euro Cup’ for European cars and the ‘One of a Kind Cup’ for those that have only one make. The six round series starts at Ruapuna on October 4.

Benjamin Carrell is the online editor of nzmotorracing.co.nz