By BOB PEARCE
Porsches have won national championship status for next season, but Tranzams, Mini Sevens and two-litre touring cars have been dumped.
MotorSport New Zealand will run championships for New Zealand V8 touring cars, Super Trucks, Formula Fords, Formula Firsts and Porsches during their summer meetings.
The three classes dropped, which have struggled to attract competitive fields, will still compete but in trophy races or competitions at a lower level.
The Porsches have drawn huge fields of mixed-performance cars in the past two seasons with a rating system to ensure close competition. This will continue, but the big selling point will be the promise of around a dozen of the high-performance GT3 cars which should prove crowd pleasers at the front of the pack.
MotorSport NZ envisages Tranzams running with other big saloons to provide the kind of big-banger racing which has proved popular in the past.
The two-litre class, dominated by Toyota last season, is likely to re-emerge in a year's time with regulations to accommodate the street performance cars beloved of boy racers and attract some of that fraternity.
Likely competitors include Mitsubishi Lancers, Honda Integras, Subaru WRXs and Nissan Skylines.
Motorsport: Porsches survive championship culling
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