Otago drivers are in with a chance for overall and class wins as the South Island Endurance Series heads to Levels Raceway in Timaru for its third and final round today.
Second on points, defending champions Allan Dippie (Dunedin) and Queenstown's Grant Aitken can still pull off both the series and GT category honours should the winners of the two previous rounds, Christchurch duo Paul Kelly and Kevin Bell, falter.
Their Porsche GT3 997 is a faster model than the Dippie-Aitken 996 but anything can happen during the three-hour race, and if fortune swings in the Otago pairing's favour, they could claim back-to-back series victories.
However, behind these two frontrunners in the overall championship standings are three cars within six points of each other and, with 85 points available today, there are still seven cars that can win the overall title.
The 3501cc+ class 1 is another category where any of the top few cars can win. The Graeme Rhodes-Paul Rickerby RX7 V8 leads from the Alexandra duo Bruce Davidson and Dave Garden's C5 Corvette.
Davidson said second was not where they wanted to be, and their car had been "plagued" by a misfire issue throughout the first two rounds.
"It's cost us dearly," he said.
Slick pitwork had kept them in class contention and sitting sixth overall, so with the problem now hopefully fixed, they were looking for a strong result, Davidson said.
Dunedin's Stuart Black will be leaving the XR8 Ute behind this weekend, as its co-driver and co-owner, Perry Scarfe, will not be making the trip over from Australia to compete in the 3501cc+ class this round.
Black's other racer, a Toyota Starlet with which he contests the one-hour series, has been been repaired after it expired on the start line of the Ruapuna race. He won the first outing at Teretonga and was hoping his rivals might experience some of the bad luck he copped two weeks ago, which would catapult him back into series-winning contention.
"I'll definitely be going to do the best that I can," he said.
The one-hour series is set to be an even a closer battle than the three-hour, with 18 cars still in with a mathematical chance of winning overall.
In the three-hour series' 2001-3500cc class 2, Black's brother Arron is a contender for class glory in the BMW E46 he shares with fellow Dunedin driver Warren Good.
After a heavy crash in the first round, the pair made a triumphant return at Ruapuna to win their category.
The up to 2000cc classes 3 and 4 sees the rapid Honda S2000 of Steve Parker and Matt Jackson leading from the ever-reliable Peugeot 106 of Dunedin team Ken Sinclair and Dennis Ham.
