Bethune races away to first GR86 win at Highlands

Josh Bethune put the frustrations of previous rounds behind him to dominate the second race of the weekend at Highlands at the fourth round of the Bridgestone GR86 Championship.

Bethune has been a pacesetter all season so far but the win that had eluded him was an emphatic one as he came home to beat Zach Blincoe by six seconds.

On a frantic last lap there was heartbreak for Simon Hunter who retired from second place when he ran out of fuel.  Hunter and his crew had effectively built a new car between Teretonga and Highlands to allow him to continue to race and he had held second this morning and looked odds-on for a fantastic result and payback for his crew.

Sadly, it was not to be. Instead, the championship points table took another turn with Bethune throwing his hat back into the ring with his win, a remarkable drive by Hayden Bakkerus to third increasing his lead at the top and Chris White and Hugo Allan maintaining their challenges with hard-fought races inside the top ten.  

Bethune became the eighth different winner in the championship so far this season and was delighted to finally get his name on that list of winners.

“It’s great to win,” he said. “We’ve been working hard all season and we have been consistently fast, but we just haven’t managed to get to the top. Once I was ahead it was uncontested. I’m pumped with the margin of victory too. We’ve got a very quick car now.”

Blincoe impressed again and took his first podium of the season, and he was in a race for it throughout. Unable to match the pace of Bethune out front he and Hunter worked hard to pull away from the cars behind. When Simon retired, the pack behind had closed in and his second place was well-deserved.

Championship contenders Bakkerus, White and Allan all made progress from their Race 1 reverse top ten grid positions, but it was Bakkerus who did best of the three, rising from ninth on the grid to take the final place on the podium after making the most of the last lap issues for Hunter and going from fifth to third. White also drove well to take fourth at the flag ahead of Jett Murray and Arthur Broughan, the youngster surviving a warning for track limits to bag another very good result.

Allan failed to make early progress in the race like his rivals ahead but did manage to gain three places and take more valuable points for seventh. Cooper Barnes was eighth while Harry Townshend also made excellent progress from sixteenth on the grid to take ninth. Ray Mallin bagged his first top ten finish too. Emerson Vincent – a Taupo race winner – also produced an eye-catching performance going from second last on the grid through to an eventual fifteenth.

Further back, Justin Allen kept his championship hopes alive with twenty first in Thomas Mallard’s car, Thomas loaning him his Crème Insurance GR86 after his own was damaged beyond immediate repair on Saturday.

2024-2025 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 4 Highlands – Race 2