Williams/Buist Repeat Win In Teretonga Asko One Hour Race

MEDIA RELEASE

22 SEPTEMBER 2013

Williams/Buist Repeat Win In Teretonga Asko One Hour Race

Grant Williams and Brent Buist of Christchurch won the opening round of the ASKO 1 Hour Endurance Series at Teretonga Park in Invercargill on Saturday. The race was punctuated by three safety car periods, the most dramatic when Ian Wooster of Arrowtown rolled his Mazda MX5 at the ultra-fast loop late in the race. 

Williams and Buist, the race winners last year, had qualified fastest in their Mazda RX7 V8 and led the impressive forty-strong field away but it was the Aston Martin DBRS-9 of Highlands Motorsport Park owner Tony Quinn that seized the lead on the second lap. However Quinn pitted with an electrical problem early in the race and although he resumed the Aston Martin ground to a halt soon after.

Williams pitted at the halfway mark to hand over to Buist and the pairing took the lead when Hayden Knighton of Christchurch took his turn to pit. When the last safety car period ended there were just four laps to run and Buist crossed the line 8.2 seconds ahead of George McFarlane of Christchurch in a Porsche GT3 with Knighton in his 996 GT3 third. Phil Hood of Kaikoura (GT3), Brian Scott of Dunedin in a Corvette and Stuart Black of Dunedin in a turbocharged Toyota Starlet rounded out the top six.

Williams was thrilled with the win. “We had a few issues today and also yesterday in practice. We had some second hand brake pads couriered in overnight after experiencing brake shudder yesterday. We let Tony go in the race today and after he stopped we passed Hayden in the pits and sailed home. We had a few wee gremlins including a hot diff.” Quinn was philosophical about his retirement. “I wanted to go for the lap record. I think the car could have done a 58 second lap. We showed how quick these GT cars are. It was some sort of electrical problem that stopped us. We hadn’t run the car since Easter.”

Prominent retirements included Danny Whiting of Christchurch who ran in third early on and Chris Henderson of Dunedin who was also near the front early in the race.

McFarlane took the GT class from Knighton and Hood while Williams/Buist took victory in Class 1 (3501cc and above) ahead of Brian Scott and Tony Head of Cambridge in his Toyota Altezza Turbo.

The extremely competitive Class 2 (2001cc-3500cc) was won by Hamish Ellingham of Napier in a Mitsubishi EVO 9 in ninth place overall from Warren Good/Ron Mackersey of Dunedin in a BMW E30 M3 and another from Dunedin, Jim Kelly in a Nissan 280Z.

Class 3&4 (0-2000cc) was taken out by 2011 Teretonga One Hour race winner Stuart Black from Bradley Dawson of Invercargill (Toyota Trueno) and former 3 Hour Series Champion Grant Aitken of Queenstown on debut in his Toyota 86.

The next round of the four round series takes place at Powerbuilt Ruapuna in Christchurch on 5 October.

Thanks to Series sponsor ASKO Appliances as well as class sponsors Mobil 1, Southern Finance, Paul Kelly Motor Company & Hagley Aluminium the Series again has a significant prizemoney pool that will be paid out across the One Hour classes, as well as major spot prizes that can be won by either 1hr or 3hr competitors.

For more information on the South Island Endurance Series, entries, or to be added to the South Island Endurance Racing Drivers Club’s e-mailing list, please contact Chris Dunn via e-mail at sierdc@xtra.co.nz. Club information can also be found on facebook at www.facebook.com/sierdc, for more information on the series sponsor ASKO, please visit www.asko.co.nz

ENDS

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