Bethune holds off inspired Zeltwanger to win Highlands thriller

Josh Bethune won an absolute thriller of a second race in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship’s fourth round at Highlands Motorsport Park.

Starting from pole position, Josh never managed to shake off championship rookie Lee Zeltwanger, and the two were never more than a car length apart for the entire ten laps in a memorable race. It gave the Right Karts by M2 Competition driver a much-needed points haul in the battle for the championship.

“Honestly, I just wanted to get it to the end,” said Bethune afterwards.

“The boys in the team have worked really hard over the last couple of weeks, which has been difficult.”

Zeltwanger was very satisfied with second, while Cooper Barnes completed a great result for Right Karts by M2 Competition with an excellent third.

An interesting front row had Bethune – always a threat but just a little off the pace of the weekend’s pacesetters – on pole position and Rookie points leader Zeltwanger alongside after his great drive through the field to seventh on Saturday. The winner of that race – Hugo Allan – lined up eighth on the grid.

Josh launched well and had a clear lead through the first chicane ahead of Zeltwanger as Barnes and Zach Blincoe went side-by-side. Further back, championship leader Chris White got a demon start and was alongside Blincoe within a couple of corners as he tried to press home his points advantage over Blincoe.

Justin Allen was ahead of Arthur Broughan at this stage too, the NAPA Autoparts veteran another to make a great start. Broughan then fell back to eighth after Allan passed him on lap two.  Further back, Ajay Giddy was going well in his repaired car – the team having done a great job of getting it ready after its big accident on Saturday. He had fought his way up to 12^th by lap three.

Bethune clearly had his head down and was trying as hard as he could to build a lead ahead of the charging pack behind. And he was doing a good job too. With Zeltwanger’s attention focused on the chasing pack behind him, Josh built up a lead of six tenths by the halfway point of the 10-lap race.

Zeltwanger, Blincoe, and White had, in turn, built a small gap to White, Allan, and Allen. It was a great battle, and with their elbows out, it was hard, but clean racing. The battle slowed White and Allen up enough to allow Broughan to join what was now a four-way battle for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth. Within another lap Mac Templeton joined the scrap too, as White had to fight harder and harder for another decent points haul to add to his tally.

Up front, Bethune was still hanging on to the lead by his fingertips, Zeltwanger building pressure on him all the way through the final few laps – including active use of his headlights – in what was proving to be one of the rookie’s best drives so far in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship.

In all the action at the front, another great battle was going almost unnoticed – until the last couple of laps – when Blincoe really started to pressure Cooper Barnes for the final place on the podium.

At the flag, it was Bethune by a whisker from Zeltwanger, then a few car lengths behind Barnes held off Blincoe by a similar margin for third. Behind them, White came home for a hard-fought fifth ahead of Allen, Allan, Broughan and Templeton. Behind them, Cameron Hill rounded out the top ten after a thriller of a race.

2025-2026 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 4 – Race 2

Header Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing New Zealand