It was a Porsche clean-sweep for the 9 ½ hour endurance race at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, New Zealand this weekend lead by the VIP Petfoods Racing team.
With the race planned for 12 hours the weather played it's part in the running as it was shortened due to early-morning fog covering the 2.8km North Island circuit, delaying the start of the race.
From the start of the race it was clear that it was going to be dominated by the Australians Klark and Tony Quinn with Kiwi Stefan Webling leading the way in the VIP Petfoods 997 RSR. The team would cross the finish line 29 laps ahead of the nearest opposition after leading all but three of the laps from pole position.
Malcolm and Brett Niall along with Clint Harvey would claim second place ahead of Denis Roderick, David Glasson and Aaron Harris in their Porsce 996 TT.
Andre Heimgartner and Phillip Hood had shown early promise from second place on the grid leading 3 laps early in the running of the race. Unfortunately for the Kiwi's they dropped back throughout the race finishing down in ninth place, 199 laps down on the leaders.
Klark Quinn was an understandably happy man after the race as he revealed they hadn't raced the 997 RSR since 2009. “We hadn't raced that car since the 2009 Nurburgring 24-hour, but it ran faultlessly all day,” Quinn said. “It's such a cool car to drive – I'd forgotten what awesome traction it has!”
Talking of the early position drop Quinn conceded that he didn't want to take any unnecessary risks in the endurance race and decided to play it safe. “The track was still damp in places at the start, and the last thing I wanted to do in such a long race was push too hard early on.
“It was better to let the other car through, because if I'd tried to defend the lead I might have made a mistake that could have put the VIP Petfoods team out of the race.
“The track was drying, and I knew that I could get back in front without jeopardising our race plan.
“The most important thing in endurance driving is to get into a rhythm, and I was concentrating on keeping every lap within a second of the target time,” Quinn said.
RESULTS
- Klark Quinn/Tony Quinn/Stefan Webling (Porsche 997 RSR) 471 laps
- Malcolm Niall/Brett Niall/Clint Harvey (Porsche 997 GT3) 442 laps
- Denis Roderick/David Glasson/Aaron Harris (Porsche 996 TT) 436 laps
Fastest lap: Klark Quinn, 1min. 05.472sec. (153.959km/h) on lap 135
