Motorsport: Porsche hybrids chase elusive victory

The Porsche 919 Hybrid No20 driven by Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard. Picture / Supplied

Kiwi Hartley sure a World Endurance win is near

The penultimate round of the World Endurance Championship is in Bahrain this weekend for the fourth six-hour long-distance event in a row.

The two Porsche 911 Hybrid cars - of Kiwi Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard, and Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb - while in championship contention, are keen to get a win this time out.

The all-new, highly technical LMP1 car has been pretty much on the pace since Porsche's return to the top flight of endurance racing, attaining a number of podiums. However, it's that elusive first win in 2014 that has so far eluded the German manufacturer.

The well-established teams of Toyota and Audi have had a few seasons to get their cars right, and as such lead the Porsches in the championship by a considerable margin.

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Having said that, the No14 car of Jani sits sixth in the series with Hartley's No20 car 10th.

The development of the 911 Hybrid has been on the fly from race to race and Hartley is pleased with the progress so far.

"Despite the puncture the race in Shanghai was very positive," he said. "The sister car ended up on the podium and we were leading the race until the puncture, which happened just after the pit entrance so I had to do a whole lap with the tyre shredding itself.

"We've still got two races left to make the top spot on the podium and I'm very optimistic it'll happen."

Bahrain could just be the place for Hartley and his co-pilots to make that final step up and get a first win for the new LMP1 car. The Kiwi has raced on the circuit before so he won't have to learn the track.

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He'll be able to concentrate on getting the most out of the car as the team has also been there before. Porsche hasn't contested the LMP1 class for 16 years and so have had no data on the tracks so far raced on.

"So far we've been on the back foot at the start of each race weekend on all the circuits we haven't race on before, which is normal for a first year of a project," said Hartley.

"Bahrain should be good, though, as we've been here before so it'll help us out a little bit."

Fords rev up

The Formula Ford series will head to Timaru this weekend

A large and competitive Formula Ford field will line up on the grid at Timaru International Raceway this weekend as the second round of the South Island championship gets under way.

Veteran Ken Smith is joining the Collins Racing Team campaigning the Van Diemen Stealth that Michael Collins drove last season to second overall in both the national and South Island championships.

With multiple wins in the New Zealand Grand Prix and Tasman Cup Revival F5000 Series, 72-year-old Smith has yet to win a Formula Ford championship and brings a lifetime of experience to the Collins Racing team.

Collins is looking forward to having Smith in the team.

"It's always good to work with Ken. You'll always learn something and he never gives an inch," he said.

Highlands 101 a thriller

Highland Motorsport owner Tony Quinn put home track advantage to good use, winning his own Highlands 101 event co-driving with V8 Supercars front-runner Garth Tander.

Using the same Aston Martin Vantage GT3, he won the inaugural Highlands 101 last November with Kiwi Fabian Coulthard, and won the Phillips Island 101 earlier this year, making last weekend's win a trifecta of 101 race wins in Australasian GT racing.

"Right now, I'm delighted and honoured to share the drive and the win with Garth," said Quinn after the race.

Best of the Kiwi teams was Inky Tulloch, driving with three-time V8 Supercar champion Craig Lowndes in fifth. They were in the Chevrolet Camaro GT3 racecar Tulloch imported to New Zealand just two months ago.