Steele & Southam Duo Return in Porsche

Rob Steele and Paul Southam will campaign their Porsche 991 Cup car in the Open Class of the GT New Zealand Championship.

The Open Class features Porsche 911 GT3 Cup, Ferrari Challenge, and Lamborghini Super Trofeo machines.

Steele and Southam are a small handful of drivers that will share the car this season. Under the category rules, competitors can share the car with up to two drivers – with the drivers undertaking a single 30 minute race each, then combining for the one-hour feature race.

In the 2022 season, Steele and Southam shared two feature race wins (Ruapuna & Hampton Downs) which helped propel Steele to finishing second overall for the season, and Southam clinching fourth.

For Southam who was a rookie last season, the aim is to increase his lap times, and stay out of trouble.

“I have a couple of objectives for the season, keep up with Rob and
not hit Luke Manson too much – he and I just seemed to find each other during the endurance series over the winter.”

“Otherwise, just really looking forward to the start of the season again.”

For Steele, consistency is key to a successful season and to finish one spot higher on the points table.

“I missed out on winning last year, by only a handful of points. Martin Dippie won the series by being consistent, he didn’t win a race, but all of those seconds and thirds added up.”

“If we can be consistent, finish well, and get some more further feature race wins, we will be there or there abouts.”

The 2023 GT New Zealand Championship will consist of a four-round series over three months commencing January 13-15 at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell. This will be followed by the second round with the New Zealand Grand Prix at Hampton Downs on February 3-5, before heading to Taupo on March 17-19. The final round will be at Manfeild on April 14-16.