Webb top hope in endurance opening round

Several Marlborough drivers are competing in the opening round of the South Island Endurance car racing series at Ruapuna Raceway in Canterbury this weekend with national hillclimb champion Neil Webb arguably their best hope of winning the round.

John Wadsworth and Warren Croft, driving their V8 Commodore, are contesting the three hour endurance race where both drivers share the duties for around 100 laps.

Jason Smith driving an RX7 and Shane Roughan in a WRX are the other local drivers in Saturday's three-hour event.

Competing in Sunday's multi-car pursuits event are Marlborough drivers Chris Hill in his WRX, David Gee driving a similar vehicle, Colin Harvey in a CRX, Richard Bateman in his Evo 8 and Smith in his RX7.

Each driver has six races over three different courses at Ruapuna. The best three timed runs are counted and from those, drivers are seeded for the afternoon racing in the six-car grid racing competition.

The knockout system comes down to a final.

Webb was narrowly beaten in last year's final by Tim Cook but won the three timed runs section for which there is a separate trophy.

The other three rounds of the South Island Endurance series are at Teretonga in Invercargill, the Levels Raceway at Timaru, and then back to Ruapuna for the final event.

The Christchurch event is an ideal warmup for next Sunday's popular Riverlands Street race at the industrial estate in which all of the Marlborough drivers heading south this weekend are competing.

- The Marlborough Express