Porsche GT3 Cup An Even Fight

Craig Baird, Fabian Coulthard and Matt Halliday shared the honours at the first round of the 2006/07 Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championship at Pukekohe Park Raceway on Sunday.

Young gun Coulthard qualified quickest, won the first two races and set a new class lap record, Halliday was the second quickest qualifier and winner of the reverse top six grid third race, and defending series champion Baird claimed overall round honours with two seconds and a third.

Coulthard was the definite paceman over the weekend but just before the half way point of the final 16 lap race, when he was circulating line astern with eventual winner Matt Halliday, his car's gearlever came away in his hand and he had to complete the race in fourth gear.

"We definitely had the speed this weekend and it would have been nice to do what we did last year (Coulthard qualified on pole, won all three races and set a new class lap record) but things like this happen from time to time," he said.

Round winner Baird was also quick to acknowledge the role Coulthard played in the weekend's proceedings.

"You certainly can't take anything away from Fabian," he said. "We got the win but we did it with reliability and consistency rather than ultimate pace."

A1 Grand Prix driver Halliday made up for an early off in the first race and a come-from-behind fourth place in the second with a good win in the third, but third place was enough to give series returnee Jody Vincent third overall for the weekend.

After admitting that nerves got the better of him in qualifying, where he set the eighth fastest lap time, Vincent, from Pukekohe, put on one of the most impressive performances of the weekend in the races, finally getting the better of an entertaining race-long dice with Dean Cockerton on the last lap to finish fourth in the first race, then finishing a fighting third in both the second and the third races.

In the latter, reverse top six grid 16-lap race, he had the large Pukekohe crowd on their feet when he leap-frogged front row starters Cameron and Cockerton and proceeded to pull away, remaining in front for three glorious laps until fellow second row starter Halliday finally caught and passed him.

Halliday found himself in catch-up mode over the weekend after a clash with fellow front-row starter Coulthard in the first race, but was buoyed by his win in the final race.

Porsche stalwart Cameron endured incredible pressure from youngsters Rob Steele and Jono Lester in both Sunday races, with Lester and Steele finishing line astern in the 10-lap race in the morning and Lester and Andrew Bagnall repeating the feat in the second.

Steele, now in a newer '04 model car after making his Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge debut in an earlier '01 model last season, briefly got past Cameron in the third race only to spin off the track immediately afterwards.

This season the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge championship series is again one of the lynchpins of MotorSport New Zealand's premier Motorsport Series programme with seven rounds alongside the NZ V8s Championship, Toyota Racing Series, Nicibo Production Racing Series and new MINI Challenge.