Photos by Neville Bailey.
Round 2 of the South Island Endurance Championship has concluded at Teretonga Park Raceway in Invercargill, the 3 Hour race seeing Sam Fillmore and Jonny Reid claim victory, in an Audi R8 LMS GT3, in dramatic fashion ahead of the McLaren 720S GT3 of Andy Fawcett and Daniel Gaunt. Lance Hughes and Chris van der Drift scored a solid third in a Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3.
There was controversy at the finish line, the McLaren of Fawcett and Gaunt running out of fuel and coasting over the final lap. Comically, Gaunt was left with no option but to cut through the infield at slow speed and try to make it to the line.
The grid had all parked up at the race end, Gaunt taking to the grass down the straight to coast to the line.
A protest was put in regarding the finish post-race. This was not upheld as the car had gained no advantage from cutting the corner, Gaunt and Fawcett retaining their position.
An unfortunate incident at Turn 1 from the start brought about an immediate red flag, the Porsche 991.2 GT3 Cup MR of Francois Beziac and Tom Alexander made contact with Graeme Rhodes and Paul Rickerby Marc2 Mustang, under braking into the first corner and slid left through the loop sustaining frontal damage in the process.
The new Marc2 Mustang of Rhodes and Rickerby fared far worse in the crash, spinning to the right and into the barriers at speed, sustaining major damage. Thankfully, all drivers avoided injury, remarkably no driver was deemed at fault for the incident!
A full race restart was required, which saw Fawcett and Van der Drift immediately pass Fillmore for first and second on the road. The duo battled over the opening stages, with the Kiwi racing veteran van der Drift’s Nismo managing lap times just as quick as Fawcett’s McLaren.
Van der Drift soon passed Fawcett and eventually pulled away as the field settled into a rhythm, a lead of some 8 seconds over Fawcett to their credit after the first hour, an early pit stop by Van der drift gave the lead briefly back to Fawcett before he also pitted as did Fillmore and the rest of the field.
There was drama as Fawcett came into the lane in the second hour; a fire at the rear of the McLaren quickly extinguished and caused no damage.
They returned to the lead whilst the Alliance Audi of Reed and Fillmore had managed a pass on Van der Drift to take second.
The final hour saw the Mclaren 720S with Gaunt at the wheel hunt down Reids Audi R8, the two cars the only ones remaining on the lead lap.
With 15 minutes to go, Gaunt had established a healthy three seconds lead; however, in an effort to save fuel, hw was forced to lift and coast, allowing Reid to quickly reduce the gap down to less than half a second for the last five minutes.
With just two minutes remaining, Gaunt “hung himself out,” attempting to lap slower traffic around the outside of turn one; Reid needed no invitation and quickly slotted his Audi to the inside to take the lead. Gaunt, by this time seriously low on fuel and three laps ahead of Lance Hughes Nissan, slowed dramatically in an effort to eke out what fuel was left, only just making it to the finish line by taking a shortcut across the grass and through pit-lane at a snail’s pace.
After a dramatic race, that was how it finished, Reid and Fillmore ahead of Gaunt and Fawcett, Van der Drift and Hughes rounding out the podium places.
