Former A1GP hero Jonny Reid is excited to return to the BNT NZ SuperTourers this weekend for the start of the new championship season. The Aucklander teams up with Hamilton’s Ant Pedersen to make a formidable pairing at the Rush Security Taupo 400 endurance meeting.

Reid twice guided the New Zealand team to second in the A1GP “World Cup of Motorsport” and later raced Porsches and V8 Supercars in Australia, as well as driving single-seaters in Europe and contesting the BNT NZ SuperTourers championship. After living in Australia for a time he is now back in Auckland.

Reid was called in at the last minute to partner Pedersen in the JR Russell Falcon after Australian Supercar driver Chaz Mostert was forced to pull out of his deal to co-drive with Pedersen again.

“I’m excited to be back in the BNT NZ SuperTourers,” Reid says. “I’m grateful that this opportunity has come up because Ant’s a great driver, he’s proved himself no end over the last few years in this category – he and Mostert won the endurance series last year.

“It’s never going to be easy but I’m really excited to be back driving. It’s going to be good fun. I love the Taupo circuit and I’ve got a lot of experience there.”

The arrangement reunites Reid with the International Motorsport team, for whom he raced in the first BNT NZ SuperTourers season.

“I’m very comfortable in the team environment,” he says. “I’ve been working with International Motorsport for a long time and Ant’s one of the nicest guys in motorsport so it’s good to be back with him.”

International Motorsport owner Lyall Williamson, who has run top drivers like Craig Baird and the late Jason Richards, also had praise for Pedersen.

“He’s been right with us since day one and he’s as good as we’ve had — as he showed in the weekend, when he beat Craig Baird in the wet at Teretonga,” Williamson says. “He’s just a good all-round package.”

Pedersen finished second overall in the 2013 championship, ahead of V8 Supercar stars Shane Van Gisbergen and Scott McLaughlin, and a close fourth in the shortened 2014 championship earlier this year.

The 2014-15 championship continues with two more endurance rounds at Hampton Downs and Pukekohe in November, and then four sprint rounds in the first part of 2015.