A memorable battle for the title will recommence this week at the 70th New Zealand Grand Prix meeting when the Bridgestone GR86 Championship drivers fight out Round 4 at Highlands Motorsport Park.
In a season of some of the closest – and cleanest – racing ever over more than ten years of the Toyota 86-based championship, it’s a battle royal at the top of the points table.
Leading the charge is Christchurch racer Chris White, who is showing pace and resilience against exceptionally strong opposition and in a field of drivers covered by hundredths of a second on pace.
White has had to work very hard for his race wins and championship lead, and both Arthur Broughan and Zach Blincoe have led the championship this season as it heads into its fourth round and the back-to-back weekends of racing following the hard-fought weekend at Teretonga.
Wet conditions made racing even tougher, but White excelled, taking two wins over the weekend and leaving with a slim 22-point lead over Blincoe.
Young gun Ajay Giddy showed incredible pace at Teretonga but was unable to convert it to a win. Nonetheless, he remains firmly in the fight for the title and is just 35 points behind Blincoe.
Josh Bethune is 20 points further behind Giddy. Josh has all the pace and race craft to succeed, but Teretonga could have gone better for him. He will be aiming to bounce back with victories at Highlands and propel himself back into the championship battle pack at the top of the table.
His teammates Cooper Barnes and Simon Hunter are improving too and emerging as potential front-runners. Wins for either this weekend are also possible.
After a quiet start to his championship year, veteran series stalwart Justin Allen was the star of a very wet second race at Teretonga and dominated the conditions to record his first win of the season. With his confidence back and the weather potentially tricky on Sunday, further wins are not out of the question, but he will need to keep scoring consistently high to move higher up the points table.
Reigning champion Hugo Allan, Broughan and top rookie Lee Zeltwanger all sit between Allen and Bethune on points. Allan’s increasing frustration this season was obvious at Teretonga, but Hugo is a class act and will fight back.
Broughan was dominant at the first round but has plenty of work to do to get back in contention, and Zeltwanger is making steady progress each round and could be close to a breakthrough win if the cards fall his way – and perhaps that might come this weekend in the reverse top ten race on Sunday morning. He continues to lead the rookie championship, however, and that is his priority this season in the CareVets Scholarship KiwiTarp GR86.
The grid this weekend welcomes Invercargill-based Nieko Scoles – a young driver who competed in the South Island Endurance Championship over the winter. He will race in an immaculately presented, Power Farming-supported GR86.
Friday testing around the challenging Highlands track will give a few pointers as to who the pacesetters will be this weekend, but the first true indication of who will lead the charge at Highlands will come in Saturday morning’s qualifying.
Header Image: Joel Hanks
