Audis R8’s have swept the podium in this afternoon’s North Island Endurance Series 3-Hour at Hampton Downs, with Luke Manson and James Penrose leading home defending champions Sam Fillmore and Jonny Reid and the AM/AM pairing of Steve Brooks and Bill Riding.
Penrose and Reid were separated by 15.2 seconds at the end to complete their team’s 172nd circuit, one more than the Brooks and Riding entry.
Glenn Smith, John De Veth and Damon Leitch finished fourth in the #91 highly modified and updated 2012 McLaren 650S, a further two laps behind and 29.127 seconds ahead of the upgraded 2016 Lamborghini Huracan EVO spec car shared by Glen Brazier and Andrew Waite.
Paul Rickerby and Graham Rhodes were sixth overall, and the sole Class 2 finishers after Simon Gilbertson and John McIntyre’s Porsche 991 GT3 caught fire mid-race.
Steph Chambers and son Mitchell Hutchinson were seventh in their 2001 Porsche 996 GT3, completing an impressive 136 laps to win uncontested in Class 3.
Fillmore had earlier qualified on the pole with a blistering 1:00.425, one-tenth quicker than the McLaren. Manson started third, missing a front-row start by just 0.033 seconds.
The defending champion cleared away from the line as Smith battled with Manson and Brooks for second over the opening circuits.
Ten minutes in, Manson had worked his way to second but was 6 seconds in arrears of the leader.
The Toyota 86 of Mark Mallard and Thomas Mallard was soon into pit lane early, suffering gearbox issues. It would return in the final minutes to complete a total of 15 laps.
At the 30-minute mark, the #222 Audi was onto the rear of Fillmore, having built a 10-second buffer over Brooks, who had also passed Smith.
Manson took the lead on Lap 42 and built a small gap over Fillmore, who uncharacteristically spun shortly before the one-hour mark, losing over 10 seconds to his rival.
The order at the front remained the same following the first round of stops.
By the 80-minute mark, Manson’s lead had blown out to 14.5 seconds over Fillmore, and Riding, who had taken over from Brooks, remained as the only other driver on the lead lap, 30 seconds adrift.
A fuel vapour fire for Gilbertson and McIntyre’s Porsche was quickly extinguished mid-race.
De Veth ran fourth, ahead of Brazier and Jono Lester, who was making up ground on the pack after co-driver Francois Beziac span in the opening hour.
Daniel Stutterd’s 2023 IRC GT, which failed to finish the 1-Hour due to a mechanical failure, was running seventh in the repaired car ex-pat Kiwi Danial Jilison at the wheel until the left-rear toe link failed, sending him into a spin.
Jilison managed to return to the pit lane under his own power, but the rear suspension was too badly damaged to be able to return to the race
Shortly after, Lester and Beziac GT3-R Porschereturned to their garage to retire with gearbox issues.
With 70 minutes remaining, the elite drivers took control. A flurry of stops saw Manson hand over to Penrose from the lead, Fillmore swap with Reid from second, Leitch take the wheel from De Veth from fourth, and Waite take control from Brazier in fifth.
The AM/AM pairing of Brooks and Riding hit the front in the pit window, ran long, and only required a ‘splash and dash’ short fuel stop on the run to the line.
The fastest lap continued to tumble once the Elite drivers were in, with Waite setting the early benchmark in Brazier’s new Lamborghini, which was then bettered lap by lap.
Reid initially ate into Penrose’s advantage, but the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship race winner minimised his losses to keep the gap over 15 seconds.
With 30 minutes to run, Penrose was 16.6 seconds clear with victory in sight as Riding came in for his final stop for fuel.
He would come to the line 15 seconds to the good of the former A1GP driver for the win to take the early lead in the North Island Endurance Series and New Zealand Endurance Championship.
The North Island Endurance Series returns for Round 2 at Taupo International Motorsport Park on May 25.
