ENDURANCE racing is the original motor sport test, racing for 12 hours through a long day and late into an often cold and foggy night.

Back in March, the Mansfield Motorsport ‘Hy Undies’ teams took second and third place in Division 3 of the 14-Hour Winton Rumble (actually a double seven run over two days, no night racing) run by the same outfit, despite racing the lowest priced, lowest powered cars in the event.

Less well known is the Night Rider 12 hour at Winton coming up this week on May 15 and organised by Motor Events, the guys who run cheap racing ‘that’s not that serious and a hell of a lot of fun!’

Fired up by their success, the crews of the Mansfield Hyundai Excels want to challenge for the Division 3 win in the day-into-night race, like the Masked Wolf says in ‘Night Rider’: ‘They wanna see me trip, But I came back, double dip’.

And there will be a crew change - at the Rumble, best placed ‘Hy Undie’ was #68, with Stu Wadsworth, Brett Smith, Brett Stevens and Tony Brown aboard. Tony is away so experienced wheelman Greggo Jones is jumping in. No change to #78 with Al Seaton, Steve Ward, Paul Allen and Kit Rundle. As before, crew chief will be Dane Nye.

Make no mistake, this is a difficult challenge.

As the sun sets after five and temperature plummets and lights turn on, no driver will have had experience of racing in the dark, of the exaggerated sense of speed, of the dazzle and struggle to orientate.

The team which adapts fastest will have the advantage.

But this motorsport adventure with all its fun and camaraderie has a parallel mission, inspired by the sad family situation of the event creator.

The large number of rare cancers now kill more people than prostate and breast cancer combined and the mortality rate far outstrips the trend in diagnosis.

Motor Events Racing is focused on helping Rare Cancers Australia improve the health outcome for these patients.

So they’ve initiated a second competition, the Donation Leaderboard.

At the moment, the Hy Undies are jointly placed in P3 and need your help to reach the top by going to

https://www.motorevents.com.au/index.php/we-are-on-a-mission/.

Back on the track, the Hy Undies are heading to Winton this weekend to challenge the 16 other teams, inspired by the Masked Wolf: “You better watch out, this night rider on the loose, this night rider on the loose. Testing the machinery, testing the crew; will the car last?; who

will break first?