Southland racing driver Jordan Michels will head to Timaru International Motor Raceway at Levels on the outskirts of Timaru this weekend to contest Round 2 of the Carter’s Tyre Service South Island Endurance 1 Hour Series after a promising debut in his Team Williams Racing/Evolution Motorsport Ford Focus at the opening round at Highlands Motorsport Park near Cromwell earlier this month. 

Michels finished a fine fifth at Highlands, remarking that he was “happy with the result but would have liked a little bit more.”

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“It was a new car and it arrived a bit late due to lockdown which meant testing time was limited,” says Michels.

The 5-litre Coyote V8 powered Focus had arrived from MARC Cars in Australia race ready and prepped.

Jordan Michels at Highlands Motorsport Park earlier this month. Photo: Aaron Staples (ASP)

“We only had one test day on used tyres. After that we packed the truck and headed to Highlands which was raced at Level 2 with limited spectators and only four people per car including the driver allowed in the pits. My engineer Jason Liefting is based in Auckland and couldn’t travel south but we were lucky to snare Simon Bradley who has previously worked on the Gilbertson/McIntyre Camaro, a massive win for us, plus we had my usual number two William as well. They are the guys who spannered my car on the way to second in the TCR New Zealand Championship. Jason was on both the phone and computer leading development and was very much a part of it. There were only three 45-minute practice sessions – the first was just a famil in which we had a puncture. In the other two we learnt a lot about changes to the car and the response to those changes. We moved forward about 1 second a lap and were quickest in the final session.”

“We had brand new tyres for the 15-minute qualifying session on Saturday which was interrupted by two red flags. It was a nightmare. We had no clear laps and set the ninth fastest time. It was a tough one. It forced me to be a little bit more aggressive in the opening laps and we picked up spots to move to seventh. Later the tyres started getting away from us but a safety car as we approached the pit entry allowed us to make a quick stop and we gained a wee bit of advantage and rejoined in fifth. Unfortunately, there was a lot of lapped traffic in the queue and for the last part of the race I had to negotiate the traffic. Chris Henderson in his Toyota was a bit luckier than us at the pit stops while the Porsche’s were doing it almost effortlessly. They were more nimble than us while we were as good in a straight line and under brakes. We need more on the initial turn-in and we plan to sort this.” 

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This weekend the series heads to Timaru and Michels says, “I have gone really well there in the past. It is quite a technical track. Highlands favoured the Porsches but I am pretty excited to go to Timaru. The club is friendly and spectators are now allowed under the government restrictions. It will be nice to catch up on the social side of things.”

A week after the Timaru round, Michels and the Team Williams Racing / Evolution Motorsport Ford Focus and crew will head to round three of the series at Jordan’s home circuit at Teretonga Park in lnvercargill.

Jordan Michels campaign in the Carter’s Tyre Service South Island Endurance Series is supported by Team Williams Racing, Evolution Motorsport, Macaulay Ford, Hydraulink Fluid Connectors Ltd, Watson Farm Solutions, Motul New Zealand, Prosport Auto, Sign Solutions, NJ Crisp Ltd, Western Electrical and Bonisch Consultants.