Having scored only a P2 finish during race 2 at Hampton Downs before a class win in race 1 at Taupo, Harrison finds himself 101 points off the leading car of #22 Jono McFarland and just 51 points behind last season’s class winner #24 Nigel Cromie.

Statistically, Harrison can still win but he will need good consistent results from himself whilst also hoping for track misfortune with his closest rivals as seventeen GT4 entries are expect for this event.

Photo credits – GT New Zealand.

At the opening round of this year’s Nurburgring Langstrecken Serie around the infamous Green Hell, we had crews from both the Prosport Racing and Dorr Motorsport teams racing there on Saturday win both Vantage GT3 and GT4 format.

With Christoph Breuer deputising within the #17 Vantage GT3 for an unavailable Jean Glorieux, he and Maxime Dumarey secured a SP9 Am Class win for their efforts (albeit the sole runner within that class) but to come first – first you must finish!!

With that change in crew left the #37 SP9 Pro class entered Vantage GT3 of Mike David Ortmann short of a driver so ‘resident’ driver coach Nico Verdonck filled that gap for them to claim a highly credible P14 finish in class at the head of the pack.

In the GT4 classes, the #176 Prosport SP10 runner of Gabriela Jilkova, Yevgen Sokolovskiy and Guido Dumarey came home in sixth whilst the SP8T classed #150 Dorr Motorsport entered Vantage GT4 of Ben Dorr and Theo Nouet claimed the top honour in their first NLS event.

Over in New Zealand, the solo AMR Vantage GT8R of Stephen Harrison worked his magic to claim an opening race at Taupo with a win and a fourth (along with a P12 in the hour-long endurance race) to elevate his position up to third in the GT4 table as the series moves onto its finale at Manfield in a month’s time.

Finally in Malaysia, the Sepang 12hr got back under this year after a number of years of enforced sabbatical with the locally based Viper Niza Racing entering their Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT3.

Fresh out of the container (in a sorry state) from its race ending accident in the final round of the Asian Le Mans Series at Yas Marina a few weeks ago, the Douglas Khoo lead team spent several days simply rebuilding the front end of their #65 car to even allow him, Dominic Ang and Jazeman Jaafar to compete this weekend.

Sadly for them, some early spins in the opening stint for Khoo put them back towards the end of the thirteen strong grid to eventually come home in tenth in what was actually an eight hour race!

Photo credits – Teams / Series / E Metzner / Social Media

Over in New Zealand, the GT Series has moved across to the Taupo International Motorsport Park for their penultimate triple header round of the season having raced at both Hampton Downs and Highlands Park.

For this round we have again gone back down to just one Aston Martin Vantage GT8R of Stephen Harrison as Joel Giddy has apparently swapped to a Mercedes AMG GT4 platform already for that event. Harrison presently lies sixth within the GT4 class, still within reach of the class leaders in front.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

However, a breach of safety apparel protocol saw the #78 driver loose that top slot after his qualifying time was disqualified and he found himself starting from the rear of the grid. In an unprecedented audition, Giddy would come home fourth in class and just three seconds off the podium whilst Harrison would charge through the class to finish in seventh from his fourteenth (in class) starting position.

Better news would eventually come Harrison’s way as during the Sunday morning hour long feature race, he and his Race Lab team would earn themselves a P2 finish in class having pushed eventual class winner Jason Leifting all the way with just a 2.7 second gap between them. Giddy would finish ninth in class.

Sundays curtain calling climax to this second round out of four from the GT New Zealand Series saw the series race by race balance of performance take effect upon the #78 car where another mid class finishes were the best from the two Aston Martin runners to finish the day in P6 and P6 as the series now gets a six week break before their penultimate round of the season from Taupo in mid-March.

Photo credits – Teams / Series

Having raced as a pair of RaceLab prepared AMR’s last season alongside that of Shaun Helms, Harrison was leading the class for most of the three races per four round season only to fall foul of a post-race five second penalty for a pit lane speed infringement saw his original championship win reversed to finish ultimately second in class behind the McLaren 570s of Nigel Cromie.

The bright yellow #78 car of Harrison was then also put up for sale by the Aston Martin Racing ANZ partner outfit down under at the end of the season so this news marks either a reversal of that decision or that Harrison has secured another platform to compete in this time around.

With still nearly ten weeks before the opening round of the season at Hampton Downs in mid-January, we believe it will be some time before the complete entry list is confirmed and to see if this second Aston Martin is either another GT4 or a GT3!

Photo credits – Super GT NZ / Team

Featuring another diverse entry of twelve cars into this round, this pairing will again have to overcome driver pairings that feature big names from the antipodean GT racing arena like Jonny Reid, Greg Murphy and Chris Van der Drift.

Photo credits – N Bailey  / Team

Drivers John Penny and Ronan Murphy are feeling optimistic about the remaining races in the 2022 Golden Homes North Island Endurance series, despite things getting off to a bumpy start at the opening round at Pukekohe Park, held over the weekend (7th - 8th May). 

The duo made their co-driving debut in an Aston Martin AMR Vantage V8 GT3, sponsored by Penny Homes and Aston Martin Auckland, and were able to adapt quickly to the new car despite it only having arrived into the country a week prior. 

“It was almost straight out of the container and onto the race track,” Murphy explained.

“The RaceLab crew didn’t have a lot of time to prepare the car and did an amazing job with such limited time, and we knew it was going to be a matter of just getting straight out there and learning as much as possible, as quickly as we could. We were quite fortunate we didn’t have any major issues during practice, so we did get that time to really focus on getting comfortable with the new car and finding our footing.”

The success of Friday’s practice session carried over into the following day, with Murphy setting the 3rd fastest time of the 30 minute session.

The 3-hour endurance race was another story, however.

Penny piloted the Aston Martin for the first stint but just before the first scheduled pitstop an issue with the cars low fuel alarm left him seemingly stranded on the side of the track. Running on fumes, he was eventually able get the V8 Vantage back to the pits.

“We were very much in the hunt up until that point, but that put us two laps down and was ultimately what cost us,” Penny says.

“The key things we took away from the weekend were that the car uses a bit more fuel than we were hoping, so we’ll have to work on that — that’s just engine mapping. The other issue was with our chassis set-up, which still needs perfecting. Although these are things that you walk away feeling concerned about, they’re also positive — they tell us that really there’s a lot more in the car.”

Murphy took up the helm for the second stint, with Penny then bringing the car home in 5th position just behind Greg Murphy, who also competed in the 3-hour race alongside Shane Helms. Andrew Waite and Sam Fillmore took out the top spot, followed by Ant and Paul Pederson, then Daniel Gaunt and Andrew Fawcett in third.

“We were disappointed, obviously, but there are some real positives to take away as well,” says Penny.

“Ronan did a fantastic job in qualifying, and he really stepped up so that was great to see him in a good space and showing his potential.”

20-year-old Murphy came away from the first race feeling positive despite the hurdles faced.

“It was a really enjoyable experience for me and it was a weekend with a lot of firsts. Pukekohe is an exciting track to race at and it’s also very high risk, so you definitely have to be cautious and very methodical in the way you approach it.”

“The car was incredible to drive though – I’ve never driven something with that much power or downforce. It has a lot of potential which we’re yet to unlock.”

The team has plenty of data to go through before the second round of the 2022 Golden Homes North Island Endurance Series kicks off at Taupō Motorsport on May 27th-28th.

Then for Sunday - the weather changed.

Increasingly long bouts of torrential rain and a stiffening wind made for the grid to take to the track for their formation lap had all on slicks only for the Hampton Downs racetrack to become almost flooded within minutes meaning for a late call from Race Control to allow all to pit for wets.

Unfortunately for Harrison, a reoccurring brake issue with his car forced him to retire into the pit lane without crossing the line to take the start of Sundays second half hour race. For Shaun Helms and his #77 Aston Martin, that delayed start allowed him to reach pit lane in time for the restart having been delayed on the public roads into the circuit due to the weather closing a nearby bridge.

That piece of luck was later transformed into a P3 overall finish – P2 in GT4 after being passed for position just meters ahead of the chequered flag by the #24 McLaren.

That left Sundays afternoon’s closing one hour race to see things out at the North Island racetrack as Harrison had qualified sixth overall with Helms down in twelfth. Fortunately, the rains had passed and the track had almost dried although the wind remained extremely strong.

An early and unfortunate contact with his RaceLab team Ginetta entry had Helms on the back foot as the grid cycled through the laps and into the pitstop window. With the GT3 cars electing to pit early for longer had the GT4 cars rise to the top of the timing screen again as the race approached half distance.

The previous races double race winning Porsche came to an untimely halt on track but that allowed for the pack to rebunch for a five-minute dash to the flag allowing for a charging Harrison to scythe past four cars to have a four-car battle for position going into the final lap.

Eventually finishing eighth overall and fourth in class, the nature of the entries allowed Harrison to claim another podium finish to that of Saturday with a P2 finish in class in Race 3.

The Series now has a two week break before its final round at Taupo at the end of February.

Photo credits – Teams / Series.

Both cars being podium winners after another eventful race last time out at Hampton Park, where the GT3 crew had to settle for a P2 slot and the GT8R crew took an unopposed class win again to lead their GT-B class.

Kelly and Riberas meanwhile are tied for the GT-A and overall Championship lead with the Audi crew of Neil Foster and Jonny Reid who beat them to the top step two weeks ago.

Photo credits – NIEC / HoRT / AMR Aus