The ultimate North vs South enduro-battle

7 February, 2017

 

New Zealand’s largest automotive distributor, Nichibo, is set to continue its support of the North Island Endurance Series into the 2017/2018 season. Nichibo currently holds the naming rights sponsor with their Mahindra brand, and it will now switch to Eneos — Japan’s top oil brand, with a strong heritage in Super GT and World Superbike racing in the motherland — for the new season. 

The Mahindra North Island Endurance series has been a massive success since its inception in 2013, and in conjunction with the Carters Tyres South Island Endurance Series and MotorSport New Zealand, the top 20 cars from both series will go head to head for winner-take-all New Zealand Championship titles at Christchurch’s Mike Pero Motorsport Park on March 18, 2017.

The joint agreement will see the event run annually, alternating islands — it was hosted by the north at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in March 2016.

It features a unique format, a one-off race for the Championship titles — to qualify you must finish within the top 20 in each series, and to eliminate trophy hunters, there are no allowances for wildcard entries. 

With some of the fastest cars in the country expected each year, and absolutely no championship strategy in play, it will make for an even more interesting new season of the North Island Endurance Series as the drivers no doubt fight their way into a qualifying place to try claim the title on home soil again in 2018. 

The 2017–’18 Eneos North Island Endurance Series will kick off at Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park Taupo, on May 20, 2017

To finish first, first, you must build a winner

Can-Am royalty
Only three M20s were built, including the car that was destroyed at Road Atlanta. This car was later rebuilt. All three cars were sold at the end of the 1972 season. One of the cars would score another Can-Am victory in 1974, driven by a privateer, but the M20’s day was done. Can-Am racing faded away at the end of that season and was replaced by Formula 5000.
These days the cars are valued in the millions. It was unlikely that I would ever have seen one in the flesh if it hadn’t been that one day my editor asked me if I would mind popping over to Taranaki and having a look at a pretty McLaren M20 that somebody had built in their shed.
That is how I came to be standing by the car owned and built by truck driver Leon Macdonald.

Lunch with … Roly Levis

Lunching was not allowed during Covid 19 Lockdowns so our correspondent recalled a lunch he had with legendary New Zealand racing driver Rollo Athol Levis shortly before he died on 1 October 2013 at the age of 88. Michael Clark caught up with Roly and members of his family over vegetable soup