Luke Manson took a hard-fought win in the Open Class of the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship at Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell this afternoon aboard his Porsche, while Brock Gilchrist, in a McLaren 570S, took victory in the GT4 class.
The Open Class Podium was rounded out with the Porsche’s of Sam Fillmore in second, with Championship leader, Rick Armstrong in third.
The GT4 podium saw the Porsche Cayman of Tony Quinn and Kynan Yu finish second, with the Mercedes AMG GT4 of James Sax coming home in third.
Off the start of the one-hour feature race, pole-sitter Rick Armstrong was passed by the AMG GT2 of Paul Pedersen, who made a bold move around the outside into the first corner to take the lead, with Luke Manson slotting into P3
A small mistake for Pedersen into the approach to the bridge bunched up leading four, which allowed Joel Giddy to move into P3, passing Manson.
Giddy then got past Armstrong and into P2 at the start of lap four.
Meanwhile, Fillmore was moving his way up the field and into P6, having started at the back of the field after missing qualifying with a gearbox issue.
Back in GT4, the McLaren of Brock Gilchrist had established a five-second lead over the Porsche Cayman of Quinn.
At the 20-minute mark, the pitstop window opened, and the first of the front runners dived into the pits to get their stops out of the way.
The GT4s of Gilchrist and James Sax pitted, along with the Open Class front runners, Armstrong, Manson and leader Pedersen.
There was a wild moment for the Porsche of Robert Dong, who found his way into the gravel at the entrance to the bridge, luckily avoiding the barriers and re-joining the race.
There was also a huge moment for the Ginetta of Steve Scoles and the AMG of Paul Pedersen on the front straight. Pedersen, lapping through traffic, made light contact with Scoles, who spun to the infield. Pedersen earned a pit lane drive-through penalty for his involvement.
A safety car was called on lap 23 to retrieve the stricken Porsche of Paul Southam, who went off track at the hairpin and ended up in the gravel, bunching up the field.
After a handful of laps behind the safety car, the race restarted, and there was a further big moment for the Ginetta of Allan Sargeant, who spun out of the last corner, thankfully onto the infield and not the outside wall.
From the restart, Manson skipped away to lead the field by five seconds while Fillmore and Giddy battled for a second behind.
In GT4, Gilchrist found himself on the tail of Kynan Yu, who was the class leader. Gilchrist made his move into the lead on lap 28, with the battle for second and third heating up between Yu and Sax.
With the flag falling, Manson took the win, Fillmore second, but Giddy was given a five-second penalty for crossing the pit exit blend line, which relegated him to fourth position and just off the podium and elevated Armstrong to third.
The GT4 podium was Gilchrist, followed by Yu, with Sax third.
The GT New Zealand Championship have two 30-minute races on Sunday to conclude the round.
