Clay Osborne will join fellow Kiwis Marco Giltrap, Ronan Murphy and Zac Stichbury on the grid for this weekend’s Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia round at The Bend.
Osborne, a world championship-winning karter, will drive for McElrea Racing for his debut round in the series.
The 18-year-old has experience in Formula First and Formula Ford in addition to the New Zealand Toyota 86 Championship, where he has competed for the past two seasons, claiming his maiden victory at Manfeild in April.
Giltrap holds a 141-point advantage over Australian Aron Shields in the series, with Stichbury a further 31 points behind in third. Stichbury has only finished on the podium once this season but finds himself at the front end of the championship from consistent top-ten results.
Murphy sits seventh in a congested mid-table but is only 38 points off the top three. The son of New Zealand racing icon Greg Murphy achieved a race win in Round 2 in Tasmania and two second-placed finishes at the opening event at Phillip Island.
Nash Morris enters this weekend as the form driver, having only joined the competition from Round 3. He has taken five of six race wins and continues to work up the leaderboard.
Qualifying for the weekend begins at 5.25 pm this evening (NZ time), with Saturday bringing two 20-minute sprint races at 2.25 pm and 6.40 pm. The 45-minute Jim Richards Endurance Championship season finale begins at 3.35 pm on Sunday and will be shown live on Motorsport Australia’s YouTube page.
The final round of the 2023 Porsche Sprint challenge takes place at Mount Panorama in support of the Bathurst International on November 9-11.
