Corolla shows up Porsches again

Dunedin V8 Corolla driver Chris Henderson retained the South Island one-hour endurance championship title with a second placing in last weekend’s final round at Levels Raceway in Timaru. The result, combined with a fourth placing at the previous round in Christchurch and victory in the opening round in Invercargill, was enough to give Henderson the series win for the second year in a row. ‘‘Very happy with that,’’ commented Henderson, whose main rivals were driving purpose-built Porsche racers. ‘‘We are surprise winners as we expected some bad luck which never came. It was awfully busy out there with traffic, so happy to finish where we did.’’ There was further success for Otago crews in the one-hour category, with Stuart and Aaron Black winning the 0-2000cc class in their BMW and Allan Dippie and Scott O’Donnell (Porsche 997 Cup S) finishing as runners-up in their class. Meanwhile, Neil Foster (Audi R8) wrapped up the three-hour South Island endurance title at the same meeting, teaming with Gene Rollinson to win the event, having won the previous two rounds with Jonny Reid. Ever consistent, Dippie and O’Donnell secured the three-hour runners-up trophy with a fourth place finish in Timaru. Third place in the series went to Dunedin’s Tim Mackersey and Queenstown’s Barry Moore in a TCR-spec Volkswagen Golf. The top 20 teams from the South Island series have qualified to go head-to-head against the equivalent crews from the North Island at the upcoming national endurance meeting at Highlands Motorsport Park in late November. Article by David Thomson Photos by Geoff Ridder