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Quinn & Tander take last lap Highlands 101 victory
Tony Quinn and Garth Tander took a last lap victory in the Highlands 101 endurance race after the Mercedes-Benz of Richard Muscat and Craig Baird which led for more than 90 laps of the 101-lap race ran out of fuel just a few metres from the finish.
The second edition of the Highlands 101 saw 20 of the 34 starters complete the high speed enduro which required each team to complete two compulsory pit-stops and saw the Australian GT class lap record broken three times by Tander. His new AGT lap record is now one minute, 31.716 seconds, while Jono Lester set a new lap record for the Kiwi teams of one minute, 33.306 seconds.
Using the same Aston Martin Vantage GT3, Quinn won the inaugural Highlands 101 last November with Kiwi star Fabian Coulthard. With Tander, Quinn won the Phillips Island 101 earlier this year, making this weekend’s Highlands 101 victory a record-making three-peat of 101 race wins in Australasian GT racing.
“Right now, I’m delighted and honoured to share the drive and the win with Garth,” said Quinn who owns the popular Highlands Motorsport Park complex.
Of the last lap win, Tander said: “The guys radioed me to say keep an eye out for the Merc, it’s going really slow. Coming out of the hairpin going up to the bridge, it wasn’t going at all, so I was yee-hahing on the radio as I went past and that was it. We were actually battling the Merc quite a bit after the earlier pit stop and we were close to going a lap down, but by staying on the lead lap and keeping the pressure on them, they pitted a lap before we did and that was the difference to buy us enough fuel to the line.”
A hard-fought second place went Rod Salmon, who took the Australian GT Trophy class victory at Highlands on Saturday and drove his Audi R8 with Nathan Antunes for the enduro podium finish.
“This is my favourite track by a long way now!” said Salmon. “What really put us where we were on the track to start with was the running race. Nathan promised me he’d be the first runner – he was third – but coming from 16th on the grid after qualifying, we went out on to the track well-positioned in third.”
Third place went to the Lamborghini pairing of Justin McMillian and Steven Richards, and best of the Kiwi teams was Southlander Ian ‘Inky’ Tulloch who had the considerable support of three-time V8 Supercar champion Craig Lowndes as his co-driver in the Chevrolet Camaro GT3 race car he imported to New Zealand just two months ago. Meanwhile Kiwi star Shane van Gisbergen, who qualified second with Klark Quinn in the McLaren, suffered the disappointment of gear selection issues having led or held second for the first part of the race. The Bentley GT3 driven by Peter Edwards and John Bowe that many fans were watching closely lost acceleration and had to be towed to the pits, but rejoined the race briefly before retiring permanently around the midway point.
The 1+01 one-hour-plus-one-lap mini-enduro saw Christchurch’s Paul Kelly and Auckland’s Daniel Gaunt take the win in a Porsche GT3 ahead of Aucklanders Gerald Trass and Jono Lester in a Ferrari 458 and Queenstown’s Grant Aitken in another Porsche GT3.
The weekend’s attractions also included Kiwi drift star ‘Mad Mike’ Whiddett drifting at Highlands for the first time, aerobatics displays and precision sky-diving.
Best estimations of the Highlands’ team regarding the weekend crowd for this year’s Highlands 101 are that it exceeded the approximately 25,000 who attended the inaugural 101 endurance event last year.
Highlands’ event marketing manager Melanie Kees says: “We added another courtesy bus today to carry spectators around the circuit to all the different viewing areas and to the far end of the circuit and our popular new Highlands safari park. With the new spectator areas we’ve created since last year’s inaugural Highlands 101 event, it’s allowed people to spread out around the circuit and enjoy the racing and entertainment from various vantage points.”
The 2015 edition of the Highlands 101 is planned for early November next year.
2014 Highlands 101 race results
Position, Drivers, Car, Total time/Diff to previous
1, Tony Quinn / Garth Tander, Aston Martin DBRS9 GT3, 2.51.09 (AGT)
2, Rod Salmon / Nathan Antunes, Audi R8 LMS GT3, 12.44s (AGT)
3, Justin McMillian / Steven Richards, Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 GT3, 1m 16s (AGT)
4, Peter Fitzgerald / Michael Almond, Audi R8 LMS GT3, 2 laps (AGT)
5, Inky Tulloch / Craig Lowndes, Chevrolet Camaro GT3, 2 laps (AGT/NZ)
6, Steven McLaughlan / Warren Luff, Audi R8 LMS GT3, 2 laps (AGT)
7, Ross Lilley / Paul Kelly, Lamborghini Gallardo FL2 GT3, 4 laps (AGT)
8, Michael Hovey / Matt Campbell, Porsche 997 GT3 Cup, 5 laps (AGT Trophy)
9, Adrian Deitz / Cameron McConville, Ferrari 458 Italia GT3, 5 laps (AGT)
10, Simon Ellingham / Andre Heimgartner, Porsche 997 GT3 Cup, 6 laps (AGT Trophy)
Kiwis
1, Inky Tulloch / Craig Lowndes, Chevrolet Camaro GT3 (5th overall)
2, Danny Whiting / Andy Knight, Porsche 997 GT3 Cup (14th overall)
3, Andrew Bagnall / Anthony Pedersen, Porsche 997 GT3 Cup (16th overall)