This weekend sees the running of the Altherm 1000 at Hampton Downs and the battle for outright victory on paper appears to be between the V8 Supercar of Matt and Dwayne Carter and the 997s of Andrew Bagnall/Ant Pedersen; Mitch and Wade Cunningham with the 996 of Simon and Mitch Evans nipping at their heels.
Twenty four cars have been entered making up six classes - Open; MINI; Production; 997; 996; and Suzuki.
The Carter’s V8 Supercar will no doubt be the favourite as the team comes with a wealth of long distance race experience. While proven to be fast reliability can be an issue but this is a team that has ‘been the distance’.
Their biggest threat will be from a group of Porsche GT3s led by the Andrew Bagnall/Ant Pedersen driver combination. Driving the latest 997 both drivers are experienced GT3 campaigners with several Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championships under their belts.
Also in a 997 is another brother combination of Mitch and Wade Cunningham. While both are more known for their single seater exploits both here in New Zealand and in the Indy Lights championship in America they are both experienced drivers with Mitch finishing eighth in this year’s GT3 series.
Originally heralded as a NZV8 long distance race weekend none of the current BNT V8 field has entered. While the category is seen as the premier class in New Zealand it currently cannot sustain the long distance running required as well as the costs associated with such a weekend.
However this season will see a 250km enduro for the BNT V8s at the second round of the 2010/11 championship at Ruapuna, Christchurch.
Racing gets underway on Saturday with each driver having one 20 minute test session befor before both drivers each face a 20 minute qualifying session at 10:35 am. The race expected to go for four hours gets underway at 12:30pm.
Entries
Race # Principal Driver Second Driver Vehicle Type Class
11 Simon Evans Mitch Evans Porsche 996 996
26 Simon McLennan Craig Innes Porsche 996 996
77 Allan Dippie Mark Maddren Porsche 996 996
32 Mitch Cunningham Wade Cunningham Porsche 997 997
82 Andrew Bagnall Ant Pedersen Porsche 997 997
2 James Kirkpatrick Ryan Bailey MINI Cooper MINI
64 Andre Heimgartner Grant Dawson MINI Cooper MINI
69 Jamie McNee Brent Melhop MINI Cooper MINI
3 John De Veth Phillip Gill Mitsi Evo 8 Open
5 Geoff Short Shane Walden Mitsi Evo 9 Open
7 Richard Billington Wayne Parker Mitsi Evo 7 Open
19 Matt Carter Dwayne Carter Ford Falcon Open
21 Lindsay Goodwin Dave Goodwin Mazda RX7 Open
25 John Wadsworth Warren Croft Commodore Open
35 Bruce Davidson David Garden Corvette Open
50 Warren Good Arron Black BMW E46 Open
80 Ian Hayr Tim Martin Porsche GT3RS Open
89 Shane Helms Robert Bolland BMW E30 M3 Open
10 Grant Aitken Grant Liston Mitsi Evo 9 PR
17 Simon Sceats Mike Modgill Subaru WRX PR
28 Mark Joblin Dave Silverton Nissan Skyline PR
33 Steve Taylor Mark Walters Honda Civic PR
14 Grant Ryan Glen Collinson Suzuki Swift Suzuki
87 AJ Lauder Brad Lauder Suzuki Swift Suzuki
