New Zealanders Brock Gilchrist, Clay Osborne and Ayrton Hodson return to action in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Australia at Queensland Raceway this weekend.
Team Porsche New Zealand’s Gilchrist enters the round amid a fierce championship battle with Oscar Targett and trails the Australian by just 26 points.
The duo have an 89-point cushion over third-place Hamish Fitzsimmons, who has form on his side after winning the last race on the Reid Park Street Circuit in Townsville.
Gilchrist’s 2024 campaign includes six podiums, one of which was a race win at The Bend. The former Toyota 86 Champion has only finished outside the top four once this season in nine starts.
Targett, meanwhile, has four wins and a further three podiums.
Osborne has also enjoyed a strong campaign and enters Round 4 in fifth, only 26 points behind Fitzsimmons. Osborne has five podiums in 2024, including one win, but lost ground through an unfortunate DNF when he was taken out in Race 3 at Phillip Island.
Hodson’s 2024 campaign has also been one of steady progress after a start-line incident in the season opener immediately put the Kiwi on the back foot.
Since then, he has finished inside the top ten in all eight races, including two season-best fifth-place finishes, one of which came last round in Townsville.
Hodson has clawed his way back to ninth in the standings and continues to make ground on those ahead.
The Porsche Sprint Challenge hits the track for the first time at 11.35 am NZST on Friday for a sole 45-minute practice session before qualifying at 3.05 pm. Race 1 begins at 7.00 pm that evening and is timed at 25 minutes.
The second 25-minute race begins at 1.05 pm on Saturday, before the 45-minute Jim Richards Enduro outing at 4.45 pm.
Australian viewers can watch Saturday’s action live on 7plus, while Kiwis can follow via Natsoft live timing.
Several other Kiwis will also be in action at the Shannon SpeedSeries meet at Queensland Raceway, including Brendon Leitch, Tim Miles, and Jaxon Evans in the GT World Challenge Australia and Ben Stewart in TCR Australia.
Header Image: Porsche Motorsport Australia
