Rnd 3 (Final) Preview - 2023 NaZCAR Pro Series Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Northern Waikato Sat Aug 19

Surprise Class Wins At Taupo Gives Ssangyong Ute Team The ‘Ghost’ Of A Chance To Claim NZ Endurance Title At Hampton Downs This Weekend

Coming back from finishing a lowly fourth in class in both the 3 & 6-Hr categories at the opening round of this year’s quick-fire NaZCAR Pro Series at Hampton Downs in June to claim emphatic class wins over both race distances at the second round at the Taupo International Motorsport Park three weeks ago sees Rick Snr, Rick Jnr and Deon Cooper (Team Ghost Dog Racing SsangYong Actyon ute) emerge as contenders for at least two of the National Endurance Championship titles up for grabs at the final round of the popular ‘everyman’s long distance motor racing series’ at Hampton Downs tomorrow (Saturday Aug.19 2023).

Last year the inaugural NZ Pro Endurance Championship title-qualifying 3-Hr & 6-Hr races at Taupo were both won by the Team Mag Motorsport E36 BMW 325i coupe of Garry Cammock and Michael Jane, from (the 3 Hr) from the broadly similar BMW 325i coupe of West Auckland mates, Karl Gaines and Lance Gerlach of Team Stickman Racing, and (the 6-Hr), the BMW E36 Compact of the Team Super Mates Racing young guns, Reece Hendl-Cox, Lee Zeltwanger and Cullern Thorby.

With only the Team Stickman squad of Gaines and Gerlach returning to contest this year’s series, however, favourite status for the Taupo round, passed to the ‘first-past-the-post’ winners of both the 3-Hr and the 6-Hr at the opening round, the E36 BMW four-door of Team Get In Behind’s Allan and Colin Letcher and Tony Rutz.

The trio didn’t disappoint at Taupo either, again winning their class (the in-between GT-Pro) across both time disciplines, leading home the quick Honda Civic Type R of Team Red 24 and the Team SixT Suzuki Swift after the first 3 hours of racing, and the 10 Tenths Racing and Team Trump Support squads after the full 6 hours.

In doing so they head into tomorrow’s series final back at Hampton Downs as odds-on favourites to again ‘do the double, and if they do, get their names on as many as four of the NZ National Endurance Championship titles up for grabs at the final round of the 2023 NaZCAR Pro Car

In .terms of the Index of Efficiency competition, meanwhile, it’s hard to look past Team Assassin and their ‘little car that could,’ the late-ish .model, Mazda 3.

Last year, car owner Mal Chamberlain and co-driving father-and-son David and Nathan Cox, made short work of the competition, claiming category honours five out of six times to earn one of the six NZ Endurance Championship titles.

This season has also got off to a similarly bullish start for the sharpshooters of Team Assassin Racing, with Chamberlain, David Cox, and new third man, Phil Dravitski, claiming ultimate IoE honours in the first 3-Hr race of the new season and finishing the closest possible second behind the Nissan Primera of father and son, Rodger, and Marcus Smith (Team Taking The P..s) in the 6-Hr.

Incredibly, given the very different weather and track conditions the two events were held in (streaming wet at the opening round at Hampton Downs, and dry and under a cloudless blue sky just a couple of weeks later at Taupo) the result of the Index of Efficiency competition was virtually identical at Taupo, with the ‘Assassins coming out on top in the 3-Hr comp only to be caught, passed and dispatched to second place both in class and in the Index of Efficiency standings after the full six hours of competition by Rodger and Marcus Smith (Team Taking The P..s Racing) in their Nissan Primera, with the Team Assassin Racing Mazda 3 second - again by the narrowest of margins.

A 30-strong field will line-up tomorrow morning at Hampton Downs for this years NaZCAR Pro Series final. Both the 3-Hr and 6-Hr races are run concurrently and start at 11.00am.. At 2:00pm the chequered flags will come out to mark the end of the 3-Hr race, then put away again until 5:00pm when they will be waved to mark the end of the 6-Hr.

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