Champions Back with New Name And New Look

Champions Back with New Name And New Look

The New Zealand Endurance Championship winning team has a new name and a heavily modified car to take on the field at Pukekohe Park this weekend and attempt to defend its title.

Wet and Forget Racing is the new name of SMEG Racing and championship winning driver Simon Evans will team up with Callum Quin in a heavily modified version of the Holden SuperTourer that helped the team take second in the 2016 New Zealand Endurance final at Hampton Downs and won no fewer than three V8 SuperTourer titles.

Former McLaren F1 engineer Stephen Giles, a regular for Evans in recent season, is back to lead the team crew and will engineer the car once again with Matt Houston. Both have been involved in what is a major upgrade for the car. As well as a seven litre LS7 motor with an updated fuel injection system, the car has been fitted with a Supercar VF body kit, additional aero and a Hollinger six speed sequential gear box. It will run slightly wider wheels than regular cars of its genre and it's a package team principal Owen Evans hopes will be very close to the outright pace when the setup is dialed in.

"It's obviously going to be hard to beat the GT3 cars but everyone in the team is genuinely looking forward to the challenge and to see where we sit. We will keep on improving the car and making it go faster and we feel that development potential is a pretty decent card to have in our hand. With Callum in the co-driver seat and with Stephen and Matt engineering again, we are pretty happy we'll be able to find a decent baseline and just get quicker from there."

Champion Simon Evans was impressed with the new look for the car, and itching to get back behind the wheel having not done much racing over the past season. "Yep, it's fair to say I cannot wait to get back on track and see what the car can do," he said.

"It looks absolutely brilliant with its new Wet and Forget livery and beefier look and we know we can go quicker than we have been before in it, and that speed before wasn't too shabby. So let's see what we can do out there."

Young gun Quin was also relishing the chance to race the car in its full new specification at Pukekohe this weekend, adding: "It's awesome to be given the opportunity to jump in to the new spec Wet and Forget V8Supertourer with Simon and the team for the NZ Endurance Finals! After learning a lot from Stephen, Matt and Simon at Ruapuna last year it will be great to continue to improve and put together a good performance for the team in the big race on Saturday.

"Being in the workshop with the team the last two days and seeing the huge amount of effort that has been put into getting the car ready I am extremely excited to see how it all goes. Once we have the setup right and the new components tuned up we should have a very competitive package on the tough Pukekohe circuit. And yep, I'm absolutely looking forward to the challenge of going up against the top touring cars from around the world and some great drivers and seeing where Simon, the team and I can finish up!"

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