Bethune brings it home for the first win of the season

Josh Bethune bagged his first win of the Bridgestone GR86 Championship season with a fine drive at Hampton Downs International Motorsport Park today.

Bethune had taken pole position for the first race from the morning’s qualifying and made a fine getaway from pole position to lead rival Chris White.

White, however, was quickly onto his rear fender and stayed there throughout the eight-lap battle, with Bethune’s solid defence bringing Zach Blincoe, Hugo Allan, Ajay Giddy, and Harry Townshend into play within a couple of laps after the lead two had initially broken away.

White’s efforts, hugging the inside of turn one as he tried to get enough of a slingshot to have an attack at turn two, had the crowd on their feet, but there was nothing he could do, and all the time Blincoe, Allan, and Giddy were eyeing up their own attacks.

Series leader Arthur Broughan drove into contention by lap five too, and gave chase to Townshend as he sought another strong result around the 3.8km Hampton Downs track.

By lap five, it was a seven-car train covered by a couple of seconds, with Cooper Barnes, Justin Allen, Lee Zeltwanger, Simon Hunter, and Mac Templeton involved in their own battle pack behind them.

In the closing stages, Bethune managed to build a lead of a few tenths of a second – never enough to be secure but perhaps just enough to make White focus on defence rather than attack. A fine drive gave the Right Karts By M2 Competition driver his first win of the season and confirmed he will be a major championship challenger over the course of the remaining championship rounds.

The spectacular White came home second with Blincoe in third. That podium was enough to give Zach the series lead by just three points. Champion Allan kept himself in the mix with fourth, while Giddy – the youngest driver in the field – was a solid fifth. Townshend did manage to hold off Broughan for sixth, which left him in seventh at the flag.

Barnes, Zeltwanger, and Allen completed the top ten after a classic GR86 race with just 14 seconds covering the entire field after eight hotly contested laps.

2025-2026 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 2 Hampton Downs Race 1

Header Image: Joel Hanks