This Multi-Class Grass-Roots Racing Perfectly Illustrates High Power Vs Light Weight

This awesome, wheel-to-wheel racing between cars of wildly different weight and power classes reminds us what we love about grass-roots motorsport

Remember when the British Touring Car Championship used to see highly-tuned Minis swapping paint with 3.4-litre Jaguars and Ford Zephyrs? No, nor us; all that magic ended before we were old enough to remember it.

Anyway, that period of racing history is often touted as a prime example of David vs Goliath competition, where different classes of car would duke it out on track. it made for one hell of a crowd-pleasing spectacle.

This on-board footage from a DC2 Honda Integra was filmed during a race of the Highlands Sprint Series, a low-cost, multi-class motorsport that takes place on various circuit configurations at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell, Otago, towards the south of New Zealand’s South Island.

Alongside the Integra are a couple of 996-era Porsche 911s, a heavily-modified Honda Civic and a yellow thing that looks a bit like a Lotus Sunbeam, but the rear lights are wrong. No doubt one or more of you will know what it is.

Anyway, in this video is a perfect demonstration of high power versus light weight. The Integra is left trailing on the straights, but while the likes of the Porsches and the fast-running and massively rear-winged Corvette are still warming up their slicks, the lighter Integra repeatedly brakes later, darts up the inside line and makes them look a bit silly.

Once the more powerful cars have warmed their rubber properly the Integra is way outgunned, but those first laps give us some awesome racing to enjoy. We need more of this!