Summerfield to challenge Graves at Catlins Rally
Summerfield will be a major challenge for top pairing of Gore driver Andrew Graves and codriver Jared Leebody...
Matt Summerfield is a late entry for Saturday’s Catlins Coast Rally, a favourite event for many South Island teams and drivers.
It is the fifth round of the Mainland Rally Series and a points round for the Eastern Southland Car Club’s Rally Championship Trophy.
Summerfield from Rangiora will drive his much older Group A Subaru Legacy in the event rather than the Subaru Impreza he uses in the NZ Rally Championship which he currently leads. He will be a major challenge for top pairing of Gore driver Andrew Graves and co-driver Jared Leebody in a Mitsubishi EVO 3.
Having won in both 2010 and 2013, Graves and Leebody were unlucky not to have a third win 12 months ago. Treacherous icy conditions dropped the top seed to as low as 35th place. Improving conditions saw Graves eventually claw his way back up the field, eventually finishing second just 33.9 seconds behind the winner, Vaughan Edie of Invercargill. This year the rally is based in Owaka.
Nearly 70 drivers and teams depart from Owaka Motors in Campbell Street at 10am tackling six Special Stages before the rally finishes in Owaka at approximately 3.44pm.
GT category dropped from SI Endurance Series
A shake-up of the rules for the 2017 South Island Endurance Series will see the removal of both the GT and 0-1600cc classes.
Fans will still get to see the spectacular GT cars that now will compete in two separate categories. Class D will be for GT cars including Porsche 997 and 991 Cup cars and V8 SuperTourers while there will be a new Class E for the FIA GT3 type cars, more and more of which are being imported into the country.
The 0-1600cc and 1601-2000cc classes will now combine in one Class A 0-2000cc.
Other capacity classes and rules remain unchanged. The series starts at Teretonga Park Invercargill on Saturday 9 September, then moves to Christchurch for round two on 30 September. The grand finale is at Levels Raceway, Timaru on 14 October. Lawson confirms TR86 entry Pukekohe’s Liam Lawson is too young to compete in the 2018 Toyota Racing Series despite gaining valuable ‘wings and slicks’ experience in the Australian Formula 4 competition over the winter.
The current NZ Formula 1600 champion turns 16 in the week leading up to the fifth and final TRS round but will not get Motorsport NZ clearance to compete at the age of 15.
However, he has now won a CareVets Racing Scholarship that gains him an entry in the 2017/18 Toyota TR 86 Championship that gets underway in early November.
Stanaway to compete in Super2 Series
Kiwi driver Richie Stanaway will make his debut in the Super2 Series at Sydney Motorsport Park next weekend with the Prodrive Racing Team ahead of what is expected to be a full time drive in the top Supercars category in 2018.
Having for several years driven for the Aston Martin Racing team in the World Endurance Championship it is hard to understand why the Kiwi driver has turned his back on opportunities in Europe.
Such is his talent that he recently set a new lap record for a four-door saloon at the Nu¨ rburgring Nordschleife race track, achieving a time of 6:57.5 in a Subaru WRX STI Type RA NBR Special designed by Subaru America.