Anthony Leighs and Tom Alexander stormed to a dominant win in the second three-hour race of this year’s South Island Endurance Series at Levels Raceway.
Debuting their Nissan GT-R GT3 this weekend, Leighs and Anthony romped to an emphatic win.
“It’s awesome to get a result like that on our first weekend,” Alexander said.
“Big thanks to Ant, he did an awesome first stint to give me the car in a nice comfortable position. I could just have some fun for the rest of the afternoon.”
The duo led the majority of the race. Glenn Smith jumped from P2 into the lead on lap one but couldn’t resist the might of the GT-R, which reclaimed the position a few laps later.
Smith was soon embroiled in a back-and-forth duel with Scott O’Donnell in the Porsche 991 GT3R.
However, a refuelling drama ruined Smith and Damon Leitch’s race. The McLaren duo lost several laps before rejoining the race.
The car would then only tour the circuit for a handful more laps before Leitch was hit by a Mazda RX8, damaging the car’s right rear wheel and eliminating the team from contention.
Alexander was dealt a drive-through penalty for overtaking under yellow flags. Though such was his advantage, it didn’t change the running order.
“I was hidden in behind the car, so I didn’t even see [the yellow flags],” he said.
“So, got the call for a drive-through for passing under yellow and, obviously, you can’t be doing that stuff. So, fair call. Silly mistake on my part but hopefully the result makes up for it.”
O’Donnell and Allan Dippie ran a lonely race in second, finishing a lap down on the victors but three ahead of Martin Dippie and Hayden Paddon in third.
“Good for Marty and the car,” Paddon said. “It was just a matter of being sensible and bringing it home.”
“Had a spin early on just to test myself,” Dippie laughed. “The car is going well and it was great fun.”
The MARC II V8 driven by Nick Ross and Sam Collins looked on form for a certain top-five result.
But with under an hour remaining, the MARC burnt a clutch. The car was towed back to the pitlane, where it eventually retired.
That left Steve Brooks and Jack Milligan to fill the boots of places just off the podium. The pair came home fourth, eight laps behind the winning Nissan.
Barry Moore and Tim Mackersy rounded out the overall top-five in the VW Golf GTi TCR.
There’s a small break before the third round of the South Island Endurance Series at Teretonga on October 24.
Main Image: Mark Petch