There were three teams yesterday that were the 2017 recipients. The worst-off award went to ex-pat Kiwis Tim Miles and Jaxon Evans, who needed to finish only fourth or better in the 501km race to win the Australian Endurance Championship but on lap 96 Evans made a costly mistake. He was carrying too much speed into the bus stop, caught the chicane, went into the gravel and damaged the Audi R8 LMS too seriously to be able to rejoin the race.
At least they got more laps in than disgruntled drifter "Mad" Mike Whiddett, whose strong early efforts ended in dramatic fashion. His driving partner V8 Supercars Champion Shane van Gisbergen had run in the Le Mans start — his long legs helping him quickly reach Whiddett waiting in Highlands owner Tony Quinn’s McLaren 650S GT3.
"We were the first car out of the pits. We rocketed out. It was between us and Peter Hackett, who qualified No1. He nearly got us but we just got out. Then we actually started pulling on them and started some battles," Whiddett said.
He pulled in for a splash of petrol in a pit stop, got back into the race and was comfortably sitting in second when disaster struck on lap 26.
"Unfortunately, a car that was two laps down, Matt Halliday, just came out of nowhere and just smashed us straight off the track."
The impact sheared the bolts off the suspension upright and the McLaren spent the race’s remainder in the pit garage. Van Gisbergen changed out of his overalls without having raced a lap in them.
Australian Hackett and Aucklander Dominic Storey were on target for a win in their Mercedes Benz AMG GT-S GT3 when steering issues in lap 115 forced them to pit for emergency repairs. Storey nursed the car to the finish, which was all he needed to do for the team to claim victory in the AEC.
Their demise left the way clear for Australian duo Tony D’Alberto and Max Twigg to win the 501 race in their Mercedes Benz AMG GT-S GT3. D’Alberto said he had contested Highlands endurance event for the past four years and was thrilled to have collected the winner’s trophy.
The fairytale finale to the Australian GTs racing at Highlands was that the Quinn family retained their record of having one of its members on the podium of every race. A very relieved Andrew Waite, who is a professional driver at Highlands, brought Quinn’s McLaren 650S GT3 through the chequered flag in second place.
"It was pretty cool to be able to do it in front of the locals in Cromwell and the members and for Tony [Quinn] and the team," Waite said.
Quinn was a happy man.
"How cool is that?," he asked gesturing at his McLaren and Waite.
He was not ruling out the GT cars coming back to Highlands in the future but said the immediate focus for this circuit was to "get the New Zealand guys into endurance racing".
