Allan win tightens championship battle

A fine win for reigning champion Hugo Allan in the first race of the Bridgestone GR86 Championship at Taupo Motorsport Park this morning saw him – and third placed Zach Blincoe – close the gap on points leader Chris White.

Allan and his iMac Engineering team entered the weekend knowing his best chance of retaining the title lay in being at the front throughout and forgetting the battles behind. And it’s a strategy that has paid off so far with two pole positions and a win in the opening race.

With two races remaining, White now sits 28 points ahead of Blincoe and a further 12 points ahead of Allan, with 75 points being awarded for a race win.

“That’s the first stage completed, but it wasn’t as easy as it might have looked, as Ajay was very fast out there,” said Allan afterwards.

“The tow in these conditions is incredibly strong, and I couldn’t shake him at all, but the team has given me a great car this weekend. I have to just focus on winning and being at the front, and that is the first box ticked. I now have to try and get as close to the front as I can in the reverse grid race later today. It’s pretty simple for me in terms of how I have to approach it.”

With no sign of the pending bad weather, the cars got away cleanly at the start, and it was the two on the front row, Allan and Giddy, who muscled it out through the first few corners before Hugo got his nose ahead. The two were followed in the early stages by Zach Blincoe, Josh Bethune and Arthur Broughan, with championship leader Chris White down in seventh after the first lap.

Allan quickly took control of the race, but in true Bridgestone GR86 Championship style, he couldn’t break away from the cars behind, and throughout the first two laps, it was nose-to-tail from the front of the 16-car field to the back.

By the start of lap three, the top five had made a small gain on the pack behind, and the leader had taken a small advantage of a couple of car lengths from Giddy, who in turn had his mirrors full of Blincoe’s green GR86.

A lap later, and Blincoe had fallen back into the clutches of Bethune, not because he was any slower but because Allan and Giddy had made a break.

Further back, top Rookie for the season Lee Zeltwanger was making excellent progress after a disappointing practice and qualifying on Friday and by the halfway mark had got himself up to an impressive eighth in a fantastic battle pack that included him, Cameron Hill, Justin Allen and Harry Townshend. The good news for series leader White was that he was two seconds up the road and not involved, but he was struggling to make headway himself.

Giddy broke the lap record on lap four in his pursuit of the leader and his first win in the championship, but Allan looked solid in the lead, the champion revelling in the speed of his car much as he did in the previous round at Manfeild.

White had a cautious run to seventh, staying in touch with the two Right Kart entries and Broughan ahead, but clearly not willing to risk a pass with the championship points so finely poised.

Giddy’s pace got him to within a car length of Allan on the penultimate lap, but the reigning champion held firm and looked assured as he completed the first of the three eight-lap sprints of the weekend with an impressive win.

Giddy followed him home just a whisker behind while Blincoe took third to carve into White’s points lead. He was comfortably ahead of the battle pack for fourth, which was won by Broughan. Bethune came home fifth ahead of team mate Cooper Barnes, White in seventh, Hill, Allen and Zeltwanger in tenth.

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

Header Image: Joel Hanks