Details of Official New North Island Endurance Series

Details of Official New North Island Endurance Series Revealed

The all new North Island Endurance Series is all set to kick off in 2014 with rounds at Pukekohe, Taupo with the grand finale to be held at Hampton Downs.

Experienced motorsport groups the HRC (Historic Racing Club), the Drivers Endurance Series, North Island Endurance racing Series, the Northern Sports Car Club, Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, NZIGP and Taupo Motorsport Park have formed a collective board to organise and promote the series, which will run in June and July next year.

The Board is made up of Chris Watson, John De Vere Ellery and Geoff Langham representing the Circuits and Race Organisers, with Kel McBeath and Karen Dovey representing the competitors and the newly-formed North Island Endurance Racing Drivers Club (NIERDC) respectively.

The IRC and HRC have been running Motorsport New Zealand-sanctioned endurance series for number of years now and the series articles will be updated specifically to ensure they meet the requirements of all competitors and are exactly the same as the SIERDC rules that are used for the ultra-successful South Island series. This will bring much needed consistency to endurance rules and allow more freedom in some areas, such as the use of slick tyres.

Last year 39 cars started the Hampton Downs combined endurance event and early indications are that separate races within a race will be needed to accommodate all the entries in 2014, again just like the South Island events.

The 2014 dates for the inaugural North Island Endurance Series are the 6th and 7th of June at Pukekohe, the 5th and 6th of July at Taupo and 25th and 26th of July at Hampton Downs.

Race options are still to be completely finalised, but event organisers can confirm that at the Taupo round there will be a 1 hour and 3 hour race, while the Hampton Downs and Pukekohe events will include 1, 3 and 6 hour races. Class 1 will be for vehicles powered by engines of 3501cc and over, Class 2 for engines between 2001cc and 3500cc, Class 3 1601cc to 2000cc and Class 4 up to 1600cc. There will also be a GT class for the more exotic cars. Equivalence factors will be Forced Induction x 1.7 and Rotary Engine x 1.8.

Championship points will be awarded for one hour, three hour and six hour series winners along with the class winners. The official North Island series winners will be determined from the 1 and 3 hour races.

The North Island Endurance Racing Drivers Club (NIERDC) has been formed so that drivers can have direct input into the race series. The most successful series currently are the series controlled by the drivers with current examples including the 2K Cup, Honda Cup, the IRC and Formula 5000.

ENDS

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