Fresh from a massive weekend at Teretonga, the Bridgestone GR86 Championship moves to the Highlands Motorsport Park this weekend and it’s set to be an absolute thriller.
The inaugural championship for the new model GR86 is proving to be almost unbelievably close. With 25-car practice and qualifying sessions covered by mere tenths of a second, and races with 20 cars covered by 15 seconds, there is literally no margin for error.
After three rounds at Taupo, Hampton Downs and Teretonga there have been eight different winners in nine races so far and countless different faces on the podiums. The racing has been super close and almost certainly ranks as the most competitive championship series Toyota has ever had in New Zealand motorsport. It’s that good.
Veteran series racer Justin Allen is the only driver to have won twice. His victory in the feature race at Teretonga last weekend was all class. Calm, collected and fast in the face of immense pressure from behind. Yet he isn’t leading the championship at this stage, that honour goes to Hayden Bakkerus with one race victory and the best consistency to date.
What is emerging in the battle this season is that every placing really matters, be it an eighth, a ninth, a tenth or even lower. Victories in the reverse grid race on Sunday mornings are more valuable and harder to come by than they have ever been.
Hugo Allan – who now sits third in the championship standings – has arguably been the best in races, but that’s really because he has disadvantaged himself in qualifying and has had to work his way through the field to take what points he can. He’s been spectacular to watch, and his race pace is keeping him in the hunt for the title, but there’s no question he’ll be looking for a massive weekend at Highlands over this NZGP weekend to push himself back to the front.
Picking a winner for any of the races is – genuinely – impossible at this stage and any of the top 15 in the championship points table could spring a surprise, but it is perhaps more interesting to look at who might add their names to the growing list of race winners this weekend. Zach Blincoe, Harry Townshend, and Cormac Murphy spring to mind immediately as potential candidates.
Simon Hunter is another. Hunter – a strong challenger for this year’s Master Class honours will be back this weekend with a new car after a big accident at Teretonga that was not his fault. Shaken but not stirred he should also be a strong podium contender.
Spare a thought too for Christina Orr-West, one of the most experienced drivers in the category. She currently sits at the top of the unofficial ‘most places gained’ table showing she has lost none of her race craft. A podium this weekend? Not impossible on a circuit she has huge experience of from Toyota 86s right up to GTs.
It all begins with Friday practice before the weekend action begins with qualifying, Race 1, then Sunday’s reverse top ten grid race in the morning before the afternoon’s big feature race as a key support class for the 69th New Zealand Grand Prix.
Blink…and you will certainly miss it.
Header Image: Bruce Jenkins
