Highlands Motorsport Park is green light for go as it hosts its first major race meeting over the next three days. Catherine Pattison breaks down what is on offer each day at the Central Otago track.
There is a veritable smorgasbord of treats in store for motoring fans in Cromwell this weekend.
There are three racing categories practising and qualifying today, then racing separately tomorrow, before two of them combine for the mighty Highlands 101 endurance race on Sunday.
The headliners are the Australian GT cars, competing outside Australia for the first time.
The 20 exotic racers, driven by professional racers and top-class privateers, feature a range of Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, Audis, Ginettas, Moslers, Vipers, Corvettes and Fords. Plus Highlands Motorsport Park's own McLaren MP4 12C super car makes its race debut in the hands of popular New Zealand driver Greg Murphy and Australian motorsport commentator Neil Compton.
The South Island Endurance Series features the best of New Zealand's endurance racers, competing in their final event. A bevy of Porsche 997s dominates the GT field but there are plenty of other high-performance cars making up the diverse three-hour and one-hour fields.
The best of these Kiwi-driven cars will line up against the Australian GTs in Sunday's 101-lap highlight race, featuring a Le Mans-style start. Also racing is Toyota's brand-new TR86 series, which makes its world debut at the first of seven meetings for the new one-make championship.
Free pitlane walk
Early birds will be rewarded, as each day the Highlands 101 meeting's gates open at 8am with a free pitlane walk for all ticket-holders.
It was a directive from Highlands Motorsport Park developer Tony Quinn to implement greater accessibility for fans in and around the cars, pits and drivers, manager Mike Sentch said.
''Tony's keen to make the Highlands meetings feel quite European, to allow general admission ticket holders to walk through the pit paddock any time to chat to their favourite drivers and check out the amazing array of racing machinery.''
FRIDAY
The weekend's schedule gets under way at 9am with more than 110 cars on track throughout the morning's practice sessions. Then things get serious as competitors in all four categories - the three-hour and one-hour SIES fields, Australian GTs and Toyota 86s - knuckle down for qualifying.
The honour of the first international race goes to the Australian GT competitors, who contest a 40min battle with a compulsory pit stop for teams, which have a seeded, professional driver, getting under way at 3.45pm.
The day wraps up with a final qualifying session for the SIES 3hr competitors at 4.40pm.
SATURDAY
Saturday's on-track action is primarily racing, with all four fields, including the inaugural TR86 race, tackling New Zealand's newest and longest race track.
The action begins at 9am with qualifying for SIES 1hr competitors. Plenty of punters will be keen to see the new Toyota TR86 cars race for the first time at 10.35am before the 11.10am SIES 1hr race.
The second 40min Australian GT race roars into life at 12.20pm and will be the title-deciding culmination to the six-round series.
The afternoon's action includes the second Toyota 86 Championship race at 1.30pm and the final SIES 3hr race at 2.10pm.
Podium presentations for both the SIES fields and also the Australia GT Series will follow from 5.10pm.
Drivers to watch
SIES 3hr
The 2011 and 2012 series champion, Paul Kelly (Porsche 997 GT3), teaming up with Daniel Gaunt, is hunting an unprecedented third straight title.
Dunedin's Allan Dippie and Invercargill's Scott O'Donnell are second going into the final round in their Porsche 997 Cup S.
New Zealand V8 Supercar driver Shane Van Gisbergen will partner car owner Dwayne Carter in his late-model Falcon GT.
SIES 1hr
Grant Williams (RX7 V8) has three wins from three starts for a clean sweep to date.
Dunedin drivers Brian Scott (Corvette C5) and Chris Henderson (Toyota AE86 V8) should be strong in class 1 (3501cc and over).
Toyota TR86
Multiple New Zealand touring car title-holder Angus Fogg.
SUNDAY
First up (9am) is qualifying for those who didn't make the Highlands 101 cut and elected to contest the Highlands 10+1 (11-lap race), followed by qualifying for the Highlands 101 split into two groups.
The Highlands 10+1 race begins at 9.55am before the third TR86 race at 10.30am.
After an early lunch break, at midday the 42 Highlands 101 cars will form up on the grid in the start order defined by times set earlier in the weekend. Spectators can then enjoy a 20min grid walk, strolling among the cars on track.
Once the grid walk is complete and spectators go back to their vantage points, the competitors get two warm-up laps before coming into pit lane and forming up, angle parked in front of the garages in start order.
Motorsport park owner Tony Quinn explains how the Le Mans-style start will work.
''Each car has a numbered orange ribbon attached to the rear, so with the starting driver already safely harnessed in the car, all co-drivers form up in the same order on the other side of pit lane, about 250m away.
''Each team also has a car controller positioned safely to watch for their co-driver to hold up the ribbon and then release the car.
''At the start, each co-driver sprints to the back of the stationary car, holds their ribbon aloft for the car controller to see, who'll be watching for other cars before they signal their driver to depart. Normal pit lane rules apply so speed is limited to 40kmh and the starting driver will only accelerate to racing speeds once they've exited pit lane.''
Officials would issue drive-through penalties to any teams that created an incident during what would be a ''frantically exciting'' start, Quinn said.
Once into the race proper, teams will be busy planning their pit strategies. That's when the advantages and disadvantages of the different drivers, cars and race plans will come into play over the three or so hours that 101 laps of the 4.1km version of the multi-configuration Highlands circuit will take.
Drivers to watch
Quinn will contest his own race in the Darrel Lee Aston Martin DBR9 with Kiwi racing star Fabian Coulthard as his co-driver.
His son, Klark Quinn, will pair up with Craig Baird in the VIP Petfoods Porsche GT3R, and plenty will be watching Murphy and Crompton in the McLaren MP4-12C.
Former Ferrari Formula One driver Ivan Capelli is re-joining Bathurst team-mate Jim Manolios behind the wheel of the Trofeo Motorsport Corvette Z06 R.
V8 SuperTourer team Tasman Motorsport fields young New Zealand drivers Andrew Waite and Simon Evans in the Highlands' Aston Martin DB9R. And V8 Supercar driver Jason Bright joins Rod Salmon and Liam Talbot in the Skwirk.com.au Audi R8.
Lunchtime entertainment
Each day's lunch session features the Benetton B191 Ford Cosworth Formula One lapping the 4.1km Highlands circuit and motorcycle stunts from Nic Kroeze.
Also on display are 10 classic, rear-wheel-drive rally cars out on the X-shaped track for some sideways action. They include a Ford Escort, a Mazda RX7, a classic Porsche 911 rally car, an Australian championship-winning Mitsubishi Lancer, a Mitsubishi Starion, a Nissan 240RS, a Bluebird Turbo and a spectacular V8 Capri.
Dunedin's Emma Gilmour is bringing her state-of-the-art Suzuki Swift Maxi rally car and Highlands also has Stu Weeber with the Possum Bourne, Group A multi-championship-winning Subaru, to show the crowd how the 4WD rally cars perform.
