The third annual NaZCAR NZ Pro Series, which kicks off with a first combined 3/6 Hour endurance race round the Hampton Downs National circuit this Saturday, (July 8), is offering competitors more.
Though last year’s second annual series broke some (as it turned out) – very fertile – new ground by including bona fide AASA New Zealand Endurance Race Championship titles into the mix, this year the man behind the series, Auckland-based novelty endurance event entrepreneur, Dr Jacob Simonsen, says he has come up with more new ideas and innovations to keep everything fresh, and the drivers both engaged and entertained.
“The main change to this year’s regs,” he said this week, “is that we have done away with the fourth class/time band, plus we have jazzed up the names of the three remaining time band categories to better reflect their speed potential.
“We’ve now got Super-Pro, for cars and drivers able to lap the 2.77km national circuit at Hampton Downs between 1:15 and 1:19, GT-Pro (between l:19 and 1:25) and Sport Pro (between 1:25 and 1.33).
To ensure that every team’s car ends up in the correct class, Dr. Simonsen has added a special two-hour amnesty to this weekend’s first 2023 series race to allow drivers who might be having second thoughts about just how fast (or slow) they can circulate the Hampton Downs circuit so that they can voluntarily swap up or down a time-banded class without incurring a breakout time penalty,
After yet another virtually flawless performance, Mal Chamberlain, and co-drivers David & Nathan Cox (Team Assassin Racing Mazda 3) claimed not one but two of the freshly minted AASA NZ Endurance Championship trophies up for grabs at the final round of last year’s Pro Series at Pukekohe’s Pukekohe Park Raceway on Saturday August 20, 2022.
Despite running one of the smaller, and lower-powered, cars in the 30-strong field, the trio topped their (time-banded) Class (4) in both the 3-Hr and the 6-Hr races and again beat out all-comers to win the prestigious Index of Efficiency (IoE) award in both races – for the fifth (out of six) time(s).
The sharp-shooting Team Assassin trio were not the only combination to leave the now closed Pukekohe Park venue after the third and final combined 3 and 6 Hr race with at least one new NZ title to their name, either.
West Auckland mates, Karl Gaines, and Lance Gerlach (Team Stickman Class 2 BMW E36 coupe) were the other combination to drive away with two AASA National Championship titles thanks to closing off their six Class (2) wins from six starts record (across both 3 & 6 Hr. races) at the final round at Pukekohe Park.
The other title winners were split between the two (3 & 6 Hr) race categories with series-long Class 1 combatants Reece Hendl-Cox, Lee Zeltwanger and Cullern Thorby (Team Super Mates Racing BMW 328ti Compact) and Garry Cammock and Michael Jane (Team Mag Motorsport BMW E36 coupe) claiming class titles apiece in the 3 Hr (Hendl-Cox et al) and 6 Hr (Cammock & Jane) categories.
A breakthrough Class (3) win at Pukekohe Park Raceway was enough to earn Justin Weir, Brad Hall and Gregor Clarke of Team Wheelie Racing their first bona fide national championsip title in the 6 Hr race.
Meanwhile class wins at the first two Pro Series rounds were just enough to earn Chris O’Driscoll, Mathew Randell, Mike Shutes and Michael Satherley (Team 24 Red Racing Honda Civic) the NZ 3 Hr title in Class 3 despite hot competition seeing the foursome finishing just shy of the podium (4th) in both 3 & 6 Hr races at the Pukekohe final.
Since kicking off his own involvement in motorsport in this country with the first wacky, budget-based ‘LeMons 24 Hour’ event at the Hampton Downs circuit in northern Waikato in 2016, then the first new budget car/driver-friendly 3 & 6 Hr. Pro Series in 2021, Auckland-based motor racing entrepreneur Dr Jacob Simonsen has – with the help of a small but dedicated group of volunteers – created his own self-contained long-distance racing ‘world’ for ordinary, everyday Kiwis to enjoy.
Along the way he set up an alternative event sanctioning and driver licensing body to that of the incumbent, MotorSport NZ, the Australasian Autosport Alliance (AASA), a 100% NZ-owned agency of the Australian Auto-Sport Alliance, which has now been successfully sanctioning, permitting, and licensing all Lemons 24 and NaZCAR as well as all Ultimate Rally Group (Targa NZ) and other motorsport events for the past six years.
From this simple desire to do things his way has since come the creation of the distinctive NZ-focused NaZCAR brand plus the Pro Series, which he describes as a ‘no-nonsense multiple distance/time endurance championship ‘without the silly themes/penalties of a typical Lemons-style event’ and which is now looking like New Zealand motorsport’s best – or more likely – worst-kept, secret.
More information on upcoming NaZCAR events can be found on the NaZCAR website at www.nazcar.nz or on the NaZCAR NZ Facebook page at facebook.com/Nazcar24.
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