Sam Collins stormed to victory in the South Island Endurance Series Class 2 & 3 One Hour at Teretonga on Saturday, a drive that saw him lead off the front row and control race proceedings from the get-go.
Heremana Malmezac drove a spirited race from sixth on the grid, picking off cars ahead of him throughout the race to come home in second.
Pole-sitter Ronan Murphy backed up his second place at Ruapuna last time out to round out the podium with a solid third.
The race belonged to Collins, however, a fast getaway come race start seeing the Ford Marc Mustang lead into Turn 1 ahead of Murphy’s Porsche 991.1 Cup.
Malmezac, starting from the third row in a Porsche 991.2 GT3, immediately put pressure on Marco Schlep off the start which paid dividends come Lap 5 as he managed an overtake for fifth.
The charge continued from Malmezac who managed to pick up Steve Brooks a lap later to run fourth.
The clean start brought about an immediate rhythm, the top seven drivers of Collins, Murphy, Jordan Michels, Malmezac, Brooks and Ben Byers all averaging sub-minute lap times.
The lead of Collins up from continued to grow, the raw power of the Mustang evident as lapped traffic came into play after just 10 laps.
The start of Lap 11 was where Malmezac managed to pass Michels to take third, Brooks and Schelp following through not long after to take fourth and fifth on-track respectively.
The first of the compulsory stops came at the halfway point, Michels, Brooks and Byers coming in, Brooks handing over the reigns to Bill Riding to see the race home.
Collins had extended his lead over Murphy to 12 seconds by this point, which he maintained until Murphy came in for his stop with 20 minutes remaining.
Malmezac took second as Murphy stopped, only to come in the very next lap. He came out of the lane just ahead of Murphy who immediately put pressure on to claim second back.
Malmezac responded with a 57.601, the fastest lap of the race which saw him pull away to hold second as lapped traffic continued to impact Murphy.
Collins stayed out late until the 48th minute, all competitors required to stop before the 50th minute. He returned to the lead despite a near-collision with Schlep as he also came in to box.
That was how it remained, Collins winning over Malmezac by five seconds with Murphy a further 12 seconds back in third.
The Porsche 992 Cup pairing of Brooks and Riding came home in fourth, Michels in a Ford Focus V8 finishing ahead of the Porsche GT3 Cup S of Schelp for fifth.
The top six all ended the race with 60 laps to their credit, a new record for one hour races at Teretonga. Whilst the pace of the six was evident, a clean race with no safety car interventions contributed to such a feat occurring.
Nigel Cromie was the fastest Class 3 car home in a McLaren 570s GT4, finishing 10th overall. Angus McFarlane and Michael Bushell coming second in class in their Porsche 996 (and 13th overall), Grant and Ben Williams rounding out the Class 3 top three in a Toyota 86 GT.
Header Image: Neville Bailey
