Podium finish for Phil Quaife in New Zealand Porsche GT3

Phil Quaife notched up second, sixth and seventh place finishes in a trip to the far side of the world to experience New Zealand’s Porsche GT3 championship, joining the Triple X Motorsport team for a three race programme across the A1GP World Cup of Motorsport event in Taupo, in the centre of New Zealand’s North Island.

Quaife was a popular guest at the race meeting with the New Zealand Porsche GT3 drivers keen to size up the European competition, and the racer from Tonbridge acquitted himself well, with fourth fastest lap in the first practice session proving his pace, despite not knowing the track. With the championship regularly visiting this challenging circuit all his rivals had plenty of experience of the tight, 13 turn track, yet Quaife was never out of the top ten during the weekend, and qualified sixth for the first race.

His first start, from the third row, saw him race into the thick of the lead pack, but after the first corner he was squeezed down to seventh. Although he fought back and pushed for sixth place the narrow Taupo track never gave him enough opportunity to make a clean pass and after eight laps he took the chequered flag in seventh place.

In the second race, from a sixth place start, Quaife had another clean start and diced with the cars around him through the first few corners, slotting into sixth place by the end of the lap, a position he maintained until the end of the race.

He said after his first two races, "It’s my first time in New Zealand and it’s a fantastic country. I’m struggling a bit with the track, as it’s a lot tighter than I’m used to driving on. The boys are helping me to develop the set up and have really worked hard. In my first two races we were round about there, but we’re struggling to get the last few tenths of the car which is what we need."

With the starting grid for the final race formed on the basis of a reverse grid for the fastest six lap times in Race 2, Quaife was on pole. The furious start off the line was clean for Quaife, but as the field bunched up under braking for Turn 2, Quaife made contact with Craig Baird and slid wide, dropping back to second place. He defended well to remain ahead of the rest of the field to take a podium spot in the finale of the weekend for the Englishman.

Quaife said of his final race and lifting a trophy at the end, "Finally, we finished where I wanted to be and that was on the podium. It’s been a real battle to set up the car over the first two races but the team worked well overnight and got it spot on for the final race.

My start was better than yesterday which was good as I was on the front row but we had the incident going into Turn 2. The cars ahead had then got away and I tried to catch them but it stayed like that for the rest of the race, so I’m fairly happy and I will hopefully be back to race with these guys again.

My thanks go to Real Essential for making this trip possible, it’s been a privilege to visit New Zealand and I’ve had a great time racing here."

- Alison Hill- also photo