Motorsport: Driver's island paradise

Simon Ellingham with his 2011 spec Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car before taming Phillip bIsland this month in Fastway Racing's first foray into the Australian motorsport circuit.

It's another step to petrol-head heaven for Simon Ellingham, of Hawke's Bay, on the other side of the Tasman.

"It's an awesome track, really fast," the 22-year-old from Napier said yesterday from Brisbane a day after a test run in his 2011 spec Porsche 997 GT3 Cup car at Phillip Island, 140km south-southeast of Melbourne, in Victoria.

"All the corners have high speed and there's only one hairpin so they are all flooring corners. I really like high-speed stuff," said Ellingham who plies his trade for the Fastway Racing team who will compete in the 2014 Australian GT Championship (AGT Trophy Class) and selected Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge events.

The racing stable has forged ties with Fastway Couriers for their first foray into an international event as the brand makes its return to Australian motorsport after 17 years.

Fastway Couriers last sponsored a team in Australia in the 1997 Bathurst 1000, with a breakdown on the final lap of the race resulting in one of the most incredible displays of sportsmanship in Bathurst history.

"The New Zealand tracks are starting and stopping but this one [Phillip Island] lets you floor the whole leg," Ellingham said before the opening Phillip Island round on May 24-25 which will be raced over 101 laps, with drivers averaging 1min 32sec on the 4.5km-lap course.

"All the drivers are pretty close to that time so we're not allowed to disclose how we went in our practice rounds," Ellingham said, adding Jono Lester would be his co-driver in the endurance event.

"It's a go-fast-or-go-off type of track. It has a good view and it's a real ballsy track."

The AGT Trophy class is a tier below the 2014 Australian GT Championship class for the big boys with V8 cars flirting with the 1min 5sec mark.

Ellingham and brother Hamish, 20, a final-year commerce student at Victoria University, Wellington, have already put the Porsche through the spin-dry cycle in the New Zealand circuits with success.

Ellingham had seasoned campaigners such as Lester, Klark Quinn and John McIntyre in securing victory in last year's NZ Endurance Championship and to podium finishes in the 2012 and 2013 South Island Endurance Race Series.

Last year Hamish took the Fastway Racing EVO IX to the top in the NZ Production GT Series Championship and a podium finish in the NZ One-Hour Endurance Series.

Ellingham's father, Brem, who is group managing director of Fastway Global, said competing in Australia was a logical step.

"Fastway Racing has had dramatic success in New Zealand within a few short years. Now our attention is fully focused on continuing our success in Australia. The 2014 season will be a springboard for Fastway Racing's future in the Asia Pacific motorsports arena and represents a challenge that everyone in the team is eagerly looking forward to," Brem said .

McElrea Racing, a Porsche racing team, will support Ellingham. The team are competing with Aston Martins, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and McLarens in the series.

Simon Ellingham said his car weighed about 1300kg, had 450hp grunt under the bonnet and a "sequential six-speed gearbox".

It had only arrived in the Brisbane workshop a week ago and the support crew had a short time to prepare it for the test drive but they were sure they would have it tuned up for the maximum speed of about 170km/h.