Greg Murphy will have the opportunity to debut New Zealand’s only Renault R.S 01 in this month’s Speed Works meeting at Hampton Downs.
The car was initially set to make its New Zealand race debut in the North Island Endurance Series earlier this year.
A gearbox issue ruled the car out of the season-opener at Pukekohe before shipping delays for the necessary parts meant the R.S 01 didn’t run at all.
The problem was addressed after the series, and the Race Lab team entered the car in the South Island Endurance Series.
However, lockdown and travel restrictions stopped the team from heading to the mainland, and they missed the entire season.
Now, with travel between regions set to restore fully on December 15, the R.S 01 will race for the first time in the country in an open GT race over December 18-19.
The car has turned several laps of Hampton Downs before. Car-owner Shane Helms was running in the 1.03-minute range last time we saw the car testing.
Murphy has also had the opportunity to steer the car, doing customer hot laps.
The R.S 01 has a twin-turbo V6 engine from a Nissan GT-R and pumps out roughly 600 hp.
Compared to some of New Zealand’s unrestricted GT3 cars, the R.S 01 isn’t overly powerful.
But it does have a full carbon chassis designed by Dallara and an aerodynamic package inline with international GT3 regulations.
The R.S 01 joins a Brabham BT62 and Lamborghini Reiter R-EX as cars Velocity News has learnt are racing at the meeting.