Triple X Reynolds favourite for Timaru Porsche racing

Following last weekend’s round victory at Invercargill, David Reynolds buoys the Triple X Motorsport team’s chances of successive wins with three races on the calendar this weekend at Timaru for the fourth round of the 2009/2010 Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge (23-24 January 2010).

Leading the six round series with an 82 point buffer, Triple X Motorsport’s five-time defending champion Craig Baird MNZM driving the #1 Mad Butcher ZM Porsche 997 has to beat Reynolds in the #8 Indians bar Hampsta car to break his winning streak.

Having scored successive pole positions this season, Reynolds heads in to this weekend’s round as favourite after winning all three races last time he raced at Timaru’s 2.4 kilometre International Motor Raceway.

“I’m going to take the same attitude I did last year - I was very very relaxed going in that round and hopefully I’ll get that good lap in qualifying at start from pole. And from there you can dictate a lot more of the racing,” said the Melbourne based driver.

“Timaru is a completely different track – very technical and tight. So you have to think a lot more about some of the corners with more of a slow-in fast-out approach.”

Missing his first win of the season when he was hit by a competitor in the last race last weekend, Daniel Gaunt driving the #3 Placemakers Hampsta Porsche 997 is firing to ensure he improves on his third spot in the championship table.

“It was so disappointing to lose that chance of a win,” said the North Shore based driver. “If you have that chance of victory – and don’t get it, its gut wrenching to try explain why.”

Taking time out between the back-to-back race weekends, team principal and Auckland businessman Shane McKillen has been holidaying in Queenstown with his family. Currently ninth in the standings he is one position behind youngster Courtney Letica in the #5 Altherm Porsche 997.

Letica’s best result in last weekend’s return to racing came with a fifth placing in the final race despite having to start from dead-last.

With Christchurch’s Paul Kelly to return to the series following family commitments the previous weekend, the Christchurch car dealer in the #90 car boosts the team driver lineup to ten. With six Porsche 997 cars the team also run drivers Earl Bamber (Wanganui), Stefan Webling (New Plymouth) and Chris Wootton (Brisbane) in the Toyota Racing Series, along with Whangarei’s Scott Harrison in the Suzuki Swift Sport Cup.

Following on from last weekend’s racing at Teretonga, the team will setup at Timaru on Wednesday to continue preparation of the cars for the Hampsta 200 event. With no pit-stop in the Mad Butcher Porsche race, the weekend starts with two practise sessions on the Friday before Saturday pre-race qualifying.

A 12-lap race on Saturday afternoon is followed by a second 12-lap race Sunday morning and the top-six reverse grid finale of 16 laps in the afternoon.

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Battery Town Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge 2009/2010 points after round three (of six) - top-nine.

Pos, car, driver, town
1 1 Craig Baird Queensland (Triple X) 793
2 21 Matt Halliday USA 707
3 3 Daniel Gaunt Auckland (Triple X) 666
4 9 Jonny Reid Auckland 619
5 8 David Reynolds Melbourne (Triple X) 584
6 82 Andrew Bagnall Auckland 447
7 96 Anthony Pedersen Rotorua 394
7 5 Courtney Letica Auckland (Triple X) 394
9 2 Shane McKillen Auckland (Triple X) 388

Triple X Motorsport driver line-up:

Car number 1: Craig Baird (Mad Butcher/ ZM Porsche 997) – first overall 2008/2009 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge
Car number 2: Shane McKillen (VnC Cocktails/Juice Bar Porsche 997)
Car number 3: Daniel Gaunt (Placemakers/Hampsta Porsche 997) – third overall 2008/2009 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge
Car number 5: Courtney Letica (Altherm Porsche 997)
Car number 8: David Reynolds (Indians Bar/Hampsta Porsche 997) – second overall 2008/2009 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge.