With just five days between on track action, the GT New Zealand Championship now heads to Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell for Round 4 of the Championship.
Following Round 3 of the Championship held at Teretonga this weekend gone, there was a switch in the Championship lead, with Joel Giddy taking over the top of the points table from Rick Armstrong who suffered a DNF in Sunday’s 1-hour feature race.
In GT4 it was another dominant display from youngster William Exton in the McLaren Artura GT4, who claimed three race wins across the weekend and thus extended his points lead.
Marco Giltrap took our the Junior Pro honours, claiming two race wins and a second placing across the weekend, with Allan Sargeant taking honours in the Masters Class.
With three rounds down, and two to go, Joel Giddy leads on 620 points from Rick Armstrong in second on 584.5, with Sam Fillmore second on 544.
In GT4, Exton leads with a healthy 724 points from James Sax in second on 590 with Allan Sargeant third on 563.5.
The field expands this weekend with a handful of cars and competitors joining the action.
In GT4, the Porsche Cayman’s of Australian Zoe Woods and Tony Quinn return this weekend – Woods will be looking to repeat her strong performance at Hampton Downs where she netted a podium.
Returning to the Championship this weekend will be the new Ginetta G56 EVO of Steve Scoles. A local to the Highlands circuit, he could be one to watch.
The two Toyota Supra GT4 EVO machines of Ayrton Hodson return alongside the sister car of Allan Sargeant and Kaleb Ngatoa.
Ngatoa coming agonisingly close to a win at Teretonga only to be curtailed by not enough fuel which hampered his efforts.
Also in the GT4 class is championship leader Exton in his McLaren Artura and the Mercedes AMG GT4 of James Sax.
In Open Class, there are six of the latest Porsche 992 Cup Cars in the hands of Armstrong, Fillmore, Luke Manson, Sam Cotterill, Paul Kelly and Giltrap, and the 991.2 Porsche Cup Car of Shaun Varney.
Championship leader Giddy will look to continue his form aboard his Mercedes AMG GT2, but will be chased by his team mate Paul Pedersen, also in an AMG GT2.
With some good results at Teretonga last weekend, James Parker will field the sole IRC GT machine again.
Rounding out the field is the Porsche 991.2 MR of Francois Beziac who returns to the Championship this weekend.
The racing at Highlands will see two 30-minute races and a single 1-hour feature race held over the weekend.
Words & Images: Supplied
