POINTS AND PRIZE MONEY BONUS WILL MAKE FIRST PORSCHE RACE CRUCIAL THIS
WEEKEND
When you're chasing a championship every race is important. But for the
15-strong field contesting this weekend's Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup
Challenge championship round at Christchurch's Powerbuilt Tools Raceway
at Ruapuna Park, Saturday's 36 lap/100 km race has even more riding on
it.
To add another element to the popular Battery Town-backed Porsche GT3 Cup
car-based series this season, The Mad Butcher-sponsored 100km
'mini-enduro' races complete with compulsory pit stop to change at
least two tyres have been included in the three-race weekend mix at four
of the seven rounds.
Each 100km race carries double points plus a total prize purse of
$10,000.
Traditionally the close-fought nature of a one-make series like the
Battery Town one has favoured those who qualify well and dictate the pace
from the front.
The reverse top-six format of the final on Sunday afternoon has helped
mix things up but with five consecutive titles to his name, defending
champion Craig Baird has proved that if you can start your weekend well
chances are it will end well.
Baird heads into the second 2009/10 series round in Christchurch this
weekend with a handsome early lead in the series points standings
courtesy of two wins and a third place finish at the opening round of the
Battery Town series at Pukekohe earlier this month.
It could have been a very different story, however, had fastest qualifier
and early leader Matt Halliday not suffered a puncture late in the first
100km race of the season at that weekend.
Not only had Halliday beaten Baird to the top spot in qualifying that
morning, he had also beaten his arch-rival off the line and had a quicker
pit stop.
"It was certainly close," says series coordinator Douglas Blair," and
though obviously it was a shame for Matt it proved that with double
points on offer, that first race can make or break your weekend."
Heading into the second series round in Christchurch this weekend it's
hard to look past more of the same sparring from Baird and Halliday,
with their respective teammates, Daniel Gaunt (with Baird a member of
the Triple X Motorsport squad) and Jonny Reid (with Halliday part of the
International Motorsport-run Fisher & Paykel team) joining them at the
front of the pack.
Baird led home a Triple X Motorsport trifecta at Pukekohe, sharing the
round podium with Gaunt and young Auckland gun Courtney Letica.
It was single-seater star Reid who left one of the biggest impressions,
however, setting the third quickest time in qualifying in his debut race
in a tin-top before finishing fourth in the first race, fifth in the
second then runner-up behind teammate Halliday in a Fisher & Paykel
one-two in the final.
Also acquitting himself well in his tin-top debut was 2008/09 Toyota
Racing Series champion Mitch Cunningham, the kart-turned car racer
qualifying and ending the round seventh.
This weekend's Battery Town series round also sees another innovation,
the introduction of the Mothers (High Performance Car Care Products) 996
GT3 Trophy for drivers contesting the 996
championship-within-a-championship.
Set to benefit from the extra support for the category - for drivers of
older model 996 GT3 Cup cars - are Aucklander Hugh Gardiner, the
defending 996 category champion who was again first 996 driver home at
Pukekohe - young guns Simon Evans and Simon McLennan, and Bridgestone
Porsche Club of New Zealand Series graduate Colin Caldwell.
Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge competitors get their first chance
to check out Powerbuilt Tools Raceway @ Ruapuna Park tomorrow (Friday)
when there will be two testing sessions before qualifying on Saturday
morning, The Mad Butcher 100km race on Saturday afternoon (start time
5.30pm) and two sprint races (one over 10 laps in the morning, the
other with a reverse top six grid start over 14 laps in the afternoon) on
Sunday.
There is then a break over the Christmas/New Year period before rounds
three (at Invercargill's Teretonga Park) and four (at Timaru's Levels
Raceway) over consecutive weekends in mid-January.
-credit: nz gt3
