Broughan storms to first pole position at Hampton Downs

Marlborough Boys High School student Arthur Broughan was the star of the show at Hampton Downs this morning as the 15-year-old put his car in pole position for the first race of the weekend in the ultra-competitive and brand-new Bridgestone GR86 Championship.

The close nature of this year’s championship saw a host of different names at the top in qualifying as the leading lights from the first round at Taupo were left fighting for scraps in the tightly-knit pack. Just one second covered the top twenty cars in the big 26-car field.

It was Broughan – who had shown decent pace in the previous two days of testing – who topped the timesheets after the first flying laps. His 1 minute 48.948 lap was an excellent opener and gave him, by the championship’s close standards – a decent margin of a tenth of a second over Zach Blincoe and experienced Toyota racer Justin Allen.

With ten minutes to go it was these three with Harry Townshend putting together a great lap for fourth fastest, ahead of one of the pacesetters of testing, Australian Cooper Barnes and Josh Bethune. As the track warmed in the morning sunshine, the times remained static and it was Broughan who took the flag and pole position – the only driver to dip under 1 minute 49 seconds.

“I’m stoked with pole position,” he said afterwards. “We tried a few things on the set up in testing and managed to get it right in the last few practice session. We ran it like that this morning and it was quick as soon as we went out. Now I will just focus on the race.”

Blincoe will join him on the front row for Saturday’s race, with Allen and Townshend on the second row. Barnes and Josh Bethune start from row three – Bethune particularly keen to make up for a disappointing Taupo round.

Australian debutant Lachlan Evennett backed up solid Thursday and Friday testing form with an impressive seventh on the grid in his first qualifying session in the championship while Hayden Lines and Cameron Hill line up eighth and ninth.

Despite posting fast times themselves in qualifying, Taupo race winners Emerson Vincent, Hugo Allan and Hayden Bakkerus were left languishing down in 10^th, 14^th and 15^th respectively with plenty of work to do in Saturday afternoon’s first race of the weekend.

2024-2025 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 2 Hampton Downs Qualifying