The Heart Of Racing Go Back-To-Back In SIES

Alex Riberas and Darren Kelly have pulled off another first place finish for The Heart of Racing in the South Island Endurance Series at Mike Pero Motorsport Park. Driving the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, Riberas and Kelly finished the three-hour feature race 39 seconds ahead of Dwayne Carter and Greg Murphy.

Alex Riberas and Darren Kelly have pulled off another first place finish for The Heart of Racing in the South Island Endurance Series at Mike Pero Motorsport Park. Driving the Aston Martin Vantage GT3, Riberas and Kelly finished the three-hour feature race 39 seconds ahead of Dwayne Carter and Greg Murphy.

This is the second straight win for Riberas and Kelly in the endurance series after winning the opening round at Teretonga Park in Invercargill last month.

The Heart of Racing has battled mechanical gremlins since the team’s third-place finish at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in the North Island Endurance Series earlier this year. While those issues persisted in Friday practice, Riberas and Kelly worked closely with the team to get the car up to speed for Saturday’s race without much drama.

“It feels great to have the car at a competitive speed again,” said Riberas. “Everybody on the team has been working hard to get more power and I am really proud of the effort we all put into this weekend.”

Driving the Audi R8 LMS GT3, Jonny Reid claimed pole position for the three-hour feature race with Neil Foster for International Motorsport. Riberas and Kelly combined for a front row start with the second quickest time in qualifying. John McIntyre in the SaReNi Camaro GT3 started third, this time joined by Nick Ross after Simon Gilbertson fell ill.

Directly behind Kelly for the start in fourth was series principal sponsor Dwayne Carter in the Carter’s Tyre Service Mercedes-AMG GT3, who he shared with Murphy. McIntyre got a strong start from the second row and shot to the lead with Foster in tow. Despite a challenge from Carter off the start, Kelly only dropped to third.

Having lost ground initially, Kelly began to pressure Reid on Lap 2. That charge was stalled on Lap 6 when Sam Filmore was involved in an incident that brought out the first Safety Car. Kelly made the most of the race restart and passed Foster and set about chasing McIntyre ahead of him.

On Lap 40, the leading Camaro started to smoke. After three laps McIntyre came into the pit lane. Ultimately, a diff failure would put McIntyre and Ross out of action and hand the race lead to Kelly, who held an impressive 32-second lead. Lap 54, and over 40 seconds ahead of Carter, Kelly pitted for the driver swap with Riberas. A clean pitstop from the cool, calm, and collected crew saw RIberas out one lap behind Carter.

Things got interesting with four-time Bathurst 1000 winner Murphy getting in for the last stint on Lap 56. This shuffled Riberas back to the lead and quiet achievers Cristina Orr-West and Brendon Leitch to second place briefly. The drama continued to unfold as the Safety Car came out on Lap 57 closing the gap and creating a hive of activity in the pits.

Lap 61 Saw the Dayle ITM-backed first generation Audi R8 LMS GT3 pit with Leitch taking the reins under Yellow Flag conditions. The race restarted with Riberas ahead of Murphy and Orr-West, an order that would remain unchanged to through to the end of the race.

Murphy got to within six seconds of Riberas after the Spaniard pitted for a splash-and-dash, but that margin opened back out when Murphy had to pit for fuel. Victory at Mike Pero Motorsport Park marks the third podium finish for the duo in their debut season across the North Island Endurance Series and South Island Endurance Series.

Riberas and Kelly have had a great start to the season thus far. The pair are keeping their eyes on the championship round at Highlands Motorsport Park in November.

“Coming back into first place at Ruapuna is definitely exciting,” said Kelly. “It’s nice to find our momentum again and I am really looking forward to the rest of the season with this team.”

The Heart of Racing is running their first Australasian GT3 team with support from International Motorsport, racing around the country to raise funds for the Starship Foundation. To date, the team has raised over $250,000 for Starship since their formation in August.

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