New Zealand driver Craig Baird will contest the Asian Porsche Carrera Cup for Triple X Motorsport, the Auckland-based team confirmed today.
Baird, with a substantial lead in New Zealand's Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge and 23 New Zealand championship titles to his name, heads to Asia buoyed by his previous success in one-off races last year.
"There are plenty of good guys there at the top of their game: Christian Menzel that drives for the Alzen's in Germany; Danny Watts, who was the British A1GP driver; Darryl O'Young who drives the GT2 class for the factory Porsche team, so I'm really looking forward to it -- it'll be a competitive series," Baird said.
The 39-year-old said driving one of the 24 new Porsches entered in the series would put all the competitors on the same level.
"It's a new car, so no-one has any data on how to get the most from the car at each circuit," he said.
"That makes it a good year to join the championship as it's never going to be as even as it is now. I obviously have to learn some of the circuits -- but we all have to learn the cars.
"The 2010 car has another 40 horsepower more and is about 150mm wider with larger tyres, so you'd expect to be 1-2 seconds quicker at most circuits -- making it a very fast car."
Triple X Motorsport team principal Shane McKillen said he felt the team's entry in the Asian cup was a good move for motor sport as it created a development path for young drivers, giving them an opportunity to run in Asia.
"Also there is an opportunity to bring some young Asian series drivers down to run New Zealand over the summer, give them a bit of testing and a few miles before they start their new championship," McKillen said.
The championship, which runs from April to October, supports the Shanghai and Singapore Formula One Grand Prix events and covers six venues across China, Singapore, Korea and Malaysia.
NZPA