McIntyre to drive winning Porsche

McIntyre to drive winning Porsche

Nelson’s John McIntyre kick-starts his endurance season of racing this Saturday 5 Julyaboard the recent 1 Hour North Island Endurance Series race winning Porsche 997 GT3 car of Simon Gilbertson.

Pairing with the Hawke’s Bay racer, McIntyre returns to racing duties in preparation for the 27 September start to the 2014/2015 V8 SuperTourer endurance series, having won the inaugural sprint title in 2012.

This weekend’s event, at the Taupo Motorsport Park, is familiar territory to McIntyre, who runs his JMR V8 SuperTourer operation from the adjacent business park.
Entered in to the three-hour category, the pair will be up against 30 other teams including several other similar 997 Porsches, GT and Sports Cars in the increasingly popular North Island Endurance Series.

“I’m really excited to be getting behind the wheel again,” says McIntyre, who took leave of racing his #47 Ford V8 SuperTourer late last year, after 14 consecutive national championship seasons of motor racing.

“Owning, running and financing the JMR V8 SuperTourer team had affected my driving and I needed to redress the balance. Putting Mark Gibson in my car and focussing on bringing him up to speed gave me the space to build the team in to a formidable package ahead of the three-round V8 SuperTourer endurance series.

“To finish last year off I competed in nine endurance races over ten weeks. I was physically and mentally drained.

“Now I’m itching to get back to racing – and the opportunity to join Simon is the perfect build-up to the V8 SuperTourer season.

"Our JMR CircuitWorx preparation business has been maintaining and running Simon’s Porsche and I have been able to drive the car at Taupo and Pukekohe in testing with him. He drives the car very well.”

McIntyre has also hinted a return to Australian events, such as the 12hr Bathurst race for GT cars and V8 Supercar endurance rounds are on his radar.

“One thing my layoff has given me is a real desire and hunger to get back into racing again. I am really excited about the rest of 2014 and will be aiming at driving in more endurance races.

The three round North Island Endurance Series follows in the footsteps of the strongly competitive South Island Endurance Series – which McIntyre also raced at last year.
Following the Taupo event, the series concludes at Hampton Downs, 26 July.

Coverage of the event will be highlighted on next Thursday’s SKY Speed television show.

ENDS.

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