It was a weekend of motorsport highs and lows for 2026 Bridgestone GR86 champion Chris White at the Monochrome GT4 Australia round at Queensland Raceway – but also brought the Christchurch driver’s first outright victory in the category.
White’s victory in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship secured the top prize of a drive in Rounds 2, 3 and 4 of the Aussie series with Garth Walden’s Sydney-based GWR Australia team in its GR Supra GT4 EVO2 alongside Daniel Frougas.
The weekend’s action at the iconic “Paperclip’ circuit started well with White settling in quickly and clocking competitive times alongside his teammate Frougas. Saturday proved to be a massive day for White and the team as they took an outright win in the first one-hour race, along with first place in the Silver class.
“It was certainly a day I’ll never forget,” said Chris. “Outright winners just sound great!”
“It represented a massive team effort today from GWR Australia and Daniel; no one in the team put a foot wrong for the whole race, where we actually started from fourth on the grid.
“Dan did a mega job starting the race, making his way from fourth to third before there was a mid-race safety car. I then jumped in with 32 minutes to go and came out of the pits in the lead.
“Once we got underway again, I was able to build a gap, but that was short-lived as another safety car came out.
“I did that again before a third safety car came out and finally, once the race got underway with four laps to go, I stood my ground and managed to build a lead of 1.2 seconds and take the chequered flag.”
Race 2 on Sunday didn’t go quite as well, and after the highs of a mega Saturday, it was back down to earth with a DNF in the race, despite starting from third on the grid and running strongly early on.
“Yes, Sunday was disappointing. We started from third, and I felt the car really had some mega pace, but I think it must have been about lap four, and a tiny hole was punched into the radiator, causing all the water to drain. That put us out.”
Overall, it was a decent weekend for the three GR Supra GT4 EVO2 cars competing. On top of the GWR Saturday race win, the Evennett/Torti can complete a 1-2 in the Silver Class on Sunday, and the McCutcheon/Quinn car can take third in the Silver Class in Sunday’s race.
Header Image: Supplied
