Kiwi GT-R confirmed for enduros

Photo / Simon Chapman

The ENEOS North Island Endurance Series GT A field has been strengthened with the late addition of Clarke Proctor and Andrew Porter with their Nissan GT-R GT3.

The ex-Super Taikyu Nissan was imported to the country in late-2016 for the Logical Motorsport pair to contest the New Zealand leg of the Australian GT Endurance Championship.

With limited running in the car Proctor said this year is all about learning the ins-and-outs of the car.

"To be realistic, I've had no more than six hours in that car," Proctor said.

"Andrew has had a little bit less, so we've got no expectations at all other than our best endeavours to finish and learn more about the car.

"But I'd still hope that we are going to be strong in the top-six in that overall class."

Their first outing with the car in the Highlands and Hampton Downs 101s was tough. Proctor said it was an intense environment with the scope of professional drivers competing for outright honours.

"Hopefully that intensity won't exist in terms of the pace of the whole field this weekend.
"It'll be a little bit more challenging to negotiate all the slower traffic, but that's something Andrew and I are both good at."

For Proctor, learning how to drive the car properly has been the biggest hurdle to get over. Having come from Formula 5000s and touring car racing, he said GT3 machinery takes racing to a whole new level.

"It's certainly taken both of us outside of our normal comfort zone. Where you'd normally be on the brakes in the Formula 5000 - bearing in mind that is half as light as the GT-R - you're basically pulling another gear in the GT-R.

"It's really unnerving to make yourself go that deep under brakes because it's unchartered territory. It's easy to talk about it, but you hop in the car and the engineer says, 'I need another 15 meters.'

"It's all about getting more miles under our belt, which is the plan for this year and then we'll consider what we may want to do at the end of this season."

The competition is set to be fierce for the Three Hour feature and Proctor is picking the likes of Nick Chester in his ex-V8 Supercar Holden Commodore and the Smeg Racing Audi R8 to do well.

Proctor said he's looking to the coming years of GT3 racing in New Zealand and hopes the FIA GT3 platform is adopted and embraced by more.

Action begin at 10:00 am on Saturday morning with the first qualifying session, before the One Hour race kicks off at 11:15 pm.