TWO, ONE-HOUR endurance races for the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli will add to the endurance flavour at this weekend’s third round of the Shannons Australian Motor Racing Nationals.

The third round of Australian GT will feature alongside the inaugural running of the Great Southern Four Hour for the Australian Manufacturers Championship, plus rounds for the Radical Australia Cup, Swift Racing Series and PRB Clubmans.

This weekend marks the first of three GT rounds to form part of the Shannons Nationals program this year – the exotic supercars also featuring at July’s Sydney Motorsport Park event and at Queensland Raceway, in August.

THE OUTRIGHT FIGHT for the inaugural Great Southern Four Hour endurance race at Phillip Island next week looks likely to be between Mitsubishi and BMW.

The opening round of the new-look 2013 Australian Manufacturers Championship on May 24-26 will see a four-car fleet of Mitsubishi’s dominant EVO X RS arrive at the high-speed 4.46km circuit as outright favourites, armed with strong drivers and experienced teams pushing them forward.

Cars from the Japanese brand will go into battle against the strongest BMW fleet ever assembled for an AMChamps race, plus entries representing Ford, Mazda, Honda, MINI, Toyota and Renault - but the Lancer’s are expected to again enter as favourites.

THE SHANNONS Australian Motor Racing Nationals was saddened this morning to hear about the passing of Winton Motor Raceway CEO, Mick Ronke.

Mick was a true supporter of the Nationals concept of opening up national-level motorsport to as wide an audience as possible, and was pro-active in supporting and growing the series’ annual Winton round, held each year in late June.

Though Winton only joined the calendar in recent years, the round has quickly grown and firmly established itself as a key date on the calendar for our competitors.