Allan aces qualifying for race one and feature race poles

Reigning champion Hugo Allan has plenty of work to do this weekend to retain his Bridgestone GR86 Championship title, but got his challenge off to the best possible start with pole position for both Saturday’s first race and Sunday’s feature race.

Allan was the man to beat at the penultimate round at Manfeild but had trailed championship leader and second placed Zach Blincoe in Friday morning’s practice at the Taupo Motorsport Park today. He was surprised, but pleased, to be the qualifying pace setter.

“You never know what tyres everyone is on in practice, and ours were alright to be honest, so to gain as much time as we did with the new tyres and then get two pole position winning lap times does come as a bit of a surprise,” he said afterwards.

“Having said that, it does set us up for the weekend we were aiming for, which is to forget about what everyone else is doing and focus on our own races and win them. The team did an amazing job today giving me that car, so I’m very grateful to them.

“And of course, you never really know where your next drive is coming from, so I have to say a big thank you to all of my sponsors.”

Blincoe had a solid session too, improving relative to the field on his morning practice times. His fastest time was good for a front row starting spot in the feature race and a second row spot with the third fastest in Saturday’s first race.

Arthur Broughan put in a solid qualifying performance as well, continuing a day of improvement across each session. He clocked the third fastest time to line up alongside Josh Bethune in the feature race and will start fifth in race one.

Bethune is always an ominous presence at the front of the grid for his competitors, and he always goes well at Taupo, too. Third on the grid for the first race and fourth for the feature guarantees that he should be a pacesetter and contender this weekend when racing gets underway.

Championship leader Chris White wasn’t able to recreate his blistering practice form – topping both sessions – and would have to settle for seventh on the grid for the first race and fifth for the feature race.

With a relatively comfortable margin over Blincoe in the points, he won’t be too concerned, but he will need to have clean races and score good points nonetheless.

Ajay Giddy will be a factor in the first race, having clocked a time good for second on the grid, and he’ll be aiming to use that as a launch pad for his first win in the ‘main game’ GR86 championship. That win could unleash a big weekend for him, even with a third-row start in sixth for Sunday’s feature.

Further back, Justin Allen recovered somewhat from a brief second practice session with tenth for the first race and ninth for the feature, while newcomers to the Bridgestone GR86 Championship, Cooper Cooley and Conley Webley, both looked assured out on track, made few mistakes and will have each other for company starting fourteenth and fifteenth respectively in both race one and three.

Racing action for the drivers begins with eight laps at 9.35 am on Saturday, before the reverse grid format race two later in the afternoon. And both Saturday and Sunday promise an intriguing climax to this year’s title fight.

2025-2026 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 6 Taupo – Race 1 Qualifying

2025-2026 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 6 Taupo – Feature Race Qualifying

Header Image: Joel Hanks