Joel Giddy has come out on top, winning the first round of the GT New Zealand Championship held at Hampton Downs over the weekend.
Giddy took an impressive win in race one of the weekend on Saturday afternoon and followed it up with a second win on Sunday morning in a wild encounter for the whole field, only to be given a post-race 10-second penalty, which tumbled him down the order, allowing Nigel Cromie and Open Class newcomer to take the victory.
Giddy was eventually classified fourth, with Sam Fillmore classified second, and Luke Manson third.
There was drama for reigning champion Rick Armstrong, who suffered a spin at turn one of race two on Sunday, slowing his progress, and eventually finishing sixth.
There was heartbreak for Regan Scoullar, who had stepped into the ex-Rick Armstrong Porsche 992, leading for half of the race before a throttle issue ended his race and a DNF.
Race three of the weekend, the 50-minute feature race, saw further torment for Scoullar, whose earlier electrical issue with this throttle persisted, forcing the car to stop on the warm-up lap.
Attempts to get going and join the race saw him return to the pits, where his team tried to remedy the issue.
With the green flag dropping for the race start, Giddy started off in pole position and held the lead from Nigel Cromie into turn one.
The opening half of the race was relatively incident-free, but with the pitstop cycles complete, Rick Armstrong found himself in the lead, which was a good recovery from his finish in race two – holding on to the lead to win the race from a hard-charging Joel Giddy, with Luke Manson securing another podium finish.
With the race points totalled after the first three races of the season, it sees Joel Giddy take the Championship lead, from Rick Armstrong and Luke Manson in third.
With an unusually early start to the season, the Championship now has a lengthy break until round two at Teretonga Park at Invercargill, 23-25 January, before heading to Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell, Jan 30-Feb 1.
Header Image: Tayler Burke
