Jordan Michels drove to a lights-to-flag victory in the Class 2 & 3 1-Hour in the latest round of the South Island Endurance Series at Teretonga over the weekend.
Having qualified on the pole, Michels was forced to overcome several restarts during the race to come home for a well-deserved win, with a lap record to boot, following a testing first outing in the Marc II Mustang at Ruapuna in the opening round.
Adam Julian (Audi R8 GT3) was second across the line to boost his claim to the NZ Endurance One Hour Class 2&3 title, which he leads, while Heremana Malmezac (Porsche GT3 Cup 991.2MR) finished third, pipping Ruapuna winner Matt Whittaker (Porsche GT3 Cup 992) by just four-tenths of a second.
Fourth place for Whittaker sees him retain his place at the top of the standings by just one point over Julian.
Having finished second at Ruapuna, Ayrton Hodson (Porsche GT3 Cup 991.1) keeps the pressure on at the top of the leaderboard by finishing fifth at Teretonga. He sits eight points behind Whittaker in his first season in the series.
One place behind Hodson was Steve Brooks (Porsche GT3 Cup 992), who was forced to compete with the assistance of regular driving partner Bill Riding, who was battling an illness.
Martin Dippie (Porsche GT3 Cup 992.2), Glen Brazier (Porsche GT3 Cup 992), Allan Dippie (Porsche GT3 Cup S) and Steve Scoles (Ginetta G56) rounded out the top ten, with Scoles being the first of the Class 3 runners home.
The South Island Endurance Series returns for the final round on October 14 in Timaru.