They were driving ‘‘quite a conservative race for the cham› pionship'' at the final round at Highlands Motorsport Park on Saturday when series leader Paul Kelly hit the wall in his Porsche GT3 and was forced to make a lengthy pit stop to replace a suspension upright.
With the defending champion side-lined and eventually finishing 24th, Dippie and O'Donnell thought they may get sufficient points with their seventh place finish to snatch the series victory.
They even survived ‘‘a big punt in the left rear'' when O'Donnell was taking his turn in the driver's seat, he said. Although it caused him to miss a corner and career on to the grass, O'Donnell was able to carry on until the scheduled driver change pit stop where the damaged rear tyre was changed.
However, when the points were added up they found they had finished second in their Porsche GT3, behind Kelly and Melbourne-based Kiwi co-driver Daniel Gaunt.
Class one competitors Alexandra men Dave Garden and Bruce Davidson experienced the heartbreak of a terminal engine failure about 20 minutes into the three-hour race in their home-built Chev Corvette.
The expiry of its 6.2-litre LS3 motor caused a minor fire.
Christchurch pair Paul Rickerby and Graeme Rhodes in their Mazda RX7 V8 were the first Class 1 car home in ninth place overall, making a clean sweep of the class for the Class 1 series win.
Blenheim drivers Craig and Scott McDermid won the Class 2 series title.
Paul Coghill and David Hunter, of Dunedin, were victorious in Class 3/4, in their debut season racing this series in their Honda Civic Type R.
Coghill said it was a ‘‘fantastic'' achievement and the pair were pleased with their race record of two wins and two seconds over the four rounds.
Dunedin's Dennis Ham and Ken Sinclair may be closer to the tortoise end of the field, yet their reliability record would usually be the envy of many hares. Their 1994 Peugeot 106 Clubsport has only had two DNFs -including one on Saturday - in all the three-hour SIES races held since the pair started racing in 2006.
Although they were unable to finish Saturday's race due to a minor mechanical fault, they had still accumulated enough points to take third in their 2000cc and under class.
Despite the wear and tear on the Peugeot, accumulated over about 16 endurance races, Ham, who does the maintenance, has only had to replace the synchros in the gearbox. They are still using the original engine.
Racing in both the three-hour race, finishing first Class 3/4 car home - sharing the drive with Mike Eady - Grant Aitken, of Queenstown, debuted his Toyota 86 in the one-hour series as well.
The double dose of racing was in aid of ‘‘supporting Tony [Quinn] in his endeavours,'' Aitken said.
Christchurch's Grant Williams sealed the one-hour race SIES title when he and co-driver Brent Buist in a Mazda RX7 V8 crossed the line in second place behind Christchurch driver George McFarlane in a Porsche GT3 on Saturday.
In Class 2, Dunedin drivers Brian Scott and Chris Henderson both had bad luck. Scott had a disappointing end to his season with gearbox issues forcing him to retire his Corvette C5 10 minutes before the race end.
With 20 minutes remaining he lost fourth gear as the transmission began overheating and then 10 minutes later, he could only access third gear.
‘‘Once I was stuck in gear, I had to come in. It was too slow,'' Scott said.
Nevertheless he has enjoyed his debut season in the SIES because of the ‘‘no rules'' nature of the entry criteria and the range of cars racing.
‘‘Ferraris to Starlets, Corvettes to Corollas,'' he said.
Henderson suffered a similar transmission fate, although he was able to nurse his Toyota Corolla AE86 through the finish flags.
He was running up in fourth place before a gearbox failure left him with only fourth gear and he dropped back to eighth.
Warren Good in his BMW had to retire early as did fellow Dunedin drivers Stu and Arron Black.
