Darryl Clarke has unveiled a fresh colour scheme for his Ford Falcon BF ahead of this weekend’s opening round of the Golden Homes North Island Endurance Series at Hampton Downs.
This year will be Clarke’s fifth endurance campaign and his second in Class 1 with the ex-DFM Racing Falcon which will sport an unmissable orange and white livery.
After several seasons in class 2 where Clarke and his Show TV Racing team ran a Seat Leon Supercopa in the one hour, the team made the transition to the Falcon last year. The car boasts many mods which include a small block Dart engine, a revamped custom diff package and a six-speed sequential TTI gearbox.
The Mount Maunganui-based team’s development across last season with the Falcon culminated into a ninth-place overall finish and third in class at last year’s national endurance championships at Hampton Downs.
This weekend will see Clarke join a 34-strong grid at the Waikato venue for the one opening hour race. It will also be the team’s first run on a racetrack since their podium result last November.
“Due to Covid, this will be our teams first time on track since coming 3rd in class at the 2019 NZ endurance Nationals one hour race,” Clarke told Velocity News.
“What we are really looking forward to is getting our crew back together and having some fun going motor racing. This will also be our first race meeting with the car on Hampton Downs’ National circuit as last year’s Nationals were on the International Circuit.
“Our team’s biggest asset is our vastly experienced crew chief and data engineer Phil Small from Wellington who travels to each round with us. Over the last 18 months he has made many positive changes to the setup of the car since our team stepped up from our one hour National Championship winning Seat Leon Supercopa in 2018.”
Alongside getting up to speed with the Falcon, last year Clarke contested the TCR Spa 500 endurance event in Belgium with a four-driver GDL Australia entry where they finished 11th.
Clarke won’t be the only V8-powered Falcon on the grid either with John Midgley in his Ford Falcon FG V8 SuperTourer and Greg Kroef in a Ford Falcon BF V8 Ute both confirmed for Saturday’s opener.
The event will be run in conjunction with the finale of the Ryco 24.7 V8 Ute championship and a non-competition round of the Best Bars New Zealand Toyota 86 Series.
The one hour field will have a 30-minute qualifying session Saturday morning before their race which is scheduled to kick off from 11.30 am and will be live streamed via Velocity News.