The New Zealand Suzuki Swift Sport Cup is moving to a new level as a one Make Motor Racing Championship.
Next season the fiercely competitive one-make production car series will gain higher recognition on national circuits with the championship rounds exclusively reserved for the popular Swifts.
The development is expected to result in more competitors being attracted to the series as it enters its third season.
"After two years of racing in mixed classes, Suzuki are delighted to be able to support our own class," said Tom Peck, General Manager of Marketing for Suzuki New Zealand Ltd.
"This move will help highlight just what the Swift Cup class is all about - an affordable, close and exciting category of motorsport," he said.
"With all the vehicles being of equal performance, the racing will come down to driver ability and car set-up," said Mr Peck.
"Without other classes of cars breaking up the close formation of the Suzukis we expect to see up to 20 Swifts racing nose to tail for the whole series."
The new Swift Sport Cup class will also be one of the events that will be televised on the same day as the racing, a plus for sponsors and driver promotion.
The rising importance of the Swift championship has been greeted enthusiastically by competitors.
Ben Dallas, the promising 18-year-old Aucklander who finished third in the Swift Sport Cup championship last season, believes the move is a huge positive for a series that is both affordable and never a bore for the public to watch.
"Last season was the best racing I have had since I started racing karts in 1998," said Dallas. "The sheer competitiveness and friendship amongst drive was great and encouraging.
"The opportunity that Suzuki now has to expand the series into a one-make class is awesome," he said.
Dallas said that while the series may not be the fastest motor racing category, what Suzuki and the sponsors had done with the one-make series was perfect.
"If last year’s action-packed season is anything to go by, this coming season’s stand-alone Swift championship is going to be full on. I can’t wait for it, whether or not I am in the driver’s seat fighting to be first or just watching the class develop," said Dallas.
The 2009/10 summer season starts at Pukekohe on November 6-8, with the second round at Ruapuna near Christchurch (November 27-29).
Subsequent rounds of the championship are scheduled for Southland’s Teretonga circuit (January 15-17), Timaru (January 22-24), Taupo or Manfeild (February 12-14) and the Taupo circuit (March 12-14).
The series may wrap-up with an endurance event at the new Hampton Downs circuit in the Waikato (May 7-9).
The successful formula used in the first two seasons will be maintained for the up-coming championship next summer.
Suzuki New Zealand subsidises the cost of preparing the Swift Sport cars to ensure the series is affordable. Modest modifications to the cars are strictly controlled to make competitors as equal as possible.
The 92 kW, double overhead camshaft, 1.6-litre Swifts are closely allied to the production Swift Sports, the performance flagship of New Zealand’s best-selling small car.
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