Entry lists released for NZ Endurance Championships

Entry lists released for NZ Endurance Championships

The provisional list of invitees has been released for the 2016/17 New Zealand Endurance Championships that will be held at Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park - Ruapuna on 18 March 2017.

In a joint venture between the South Island Endurance Racing Drivers Club (SIERDC), the North Island Endurance Racing Drivers Club (NIERDC) and Motorsport New Zealand, this one off event will see the top cars from both the Carters Tyres South Island Endurance Series and the Mahindra North Island Endurance Series compete in a one off winner takes all New Zealand Championship title. There will be a bumper field of 40 cars take the starting flag in one hour and three hour races, with 20 cars from each island invited for each race.

A joint agreement signed in 2016 see’s the event run in alternate islands annually. The inaugural event was hosted by NIERDC at Hampton Downs in March 2016, with the South Island hosting the Championship event in March 2017. “It’s an exciting time for endurance racing, the North Island guys hosted a really great event in March, so our challenge is to make the South Island event even better” said SIERDC Secretary Chris Dunn. “We are very proud that the New Zealand Championship event will be supported by the team from Carters Tyre Service and we are thrilled to have their support for what will be called the Carters Tyres New Zealand Endurance Championships” he said.

The NZ Endurance Championship has a very unique format being that it is a one off race for the Championship titles. However to obtain a qualifying spot competitors must have finished near the top in either Island Series, so just qualifying for the Championships is an achievement in its own, plus to eliminate any trophy hunters there is also no allowance for any wildcard entries. The format does allow for driver changes or car acquisitions and any three hour team can either swap a driver OR a car but not both. However with the 1hr series being a straight drivers championship cars can be freely swapped. There will again be separate races for the 1 hour & 3 hour fields and NZ titles are awarded for all the classes including; Class 3: 0-2000cc, Class 2: 2001-3500cc and Class 1: 3501cc+, the glitzy GT class as well as the outright 3 hour and 1 hour New Zealand Championship titles..

With some of the fastest cars in the country expected for this event and with absolutely no championship strategy in play, the 2016/17 Carters Tyre Service NZ Endurance Championship will definitely be an exciting battle and is undoubtedly an event to mark on your calendar. In an interesting twist the Championship event will see the introduction of a top ten shootout for the 3 hour cars which will be something unique to a New Zealand Championship and it will be a very popular addition for the crowd. There is also a SIERDC v NIERDC challenge trophy up for grabs to create some friendly rivalry between the two Series’.

The initial invitees are listed below, however as one car withdraws then the next on the respective list is added with the intention of achieving a 40 car maximum field for the 1hr & 3hr races.

3 Hour qualifyers – North Island

One Hour qualfyers – South Island

One Hour Qualifyers – North Island

Ends

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