Motorsport: NZ debut of Rush Hour racing

Simon Evans in action during the BNT V8s last summer. Photo / Supplied

New Zealand motorsport fans will get their first glimpse of Rush Hour racing this weekend at Taupo Motorsport Park.
The first major event of the New Zealand Summer Series will see the debut of the all-classes handicap format that is expected to be the feature race at each meeting.

The Rush Hour race will be the final race on the Saturday of each meeting with the leading cars from each individual category invited for a winner-takes-all hour-long endurance test.

"Rush Hour is a one-hour feature race with a twist and the twist is the pit stop," promoter Geoff Short told The Herald.

"Instead of worrying about cars having parity the pit stop is almost the handicap of the car speed.

"We have got four categories – Porsche, V8s, GT cars and wildcard – we could have up to 40 cars on the grid – 10 from each category.

"All of those cars have a chance of winning outright."

Cars must take a compulsory pit stop somewhere between the 20th minute and 40th minute of the race and they will spend a minimum amount of time stationery depending on the individual car's speed.

"Mike Racing from Malaysia has his Mercedes GT3 car and let's say it goes around Taupo in 1:25m and Paul Kelly has just bought a new 991 Porsche and maybe he is going around in 1:28m," Short explained.

"It might mean that Mercedes is stopped in the pits for a minute longer than the Porsche.
"The way we have calculated it they should all cross the finish line at the same time."

The concept has drawn plenty of interest and will be live-streamed via the Speedworks website and app.

"We have 210 cars entered for the event so we have a full program," Short said of the race meeting. "We have 11 classes including Rush Hour."