Luke Manson dominated the fourth round of the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship at Highlands Motorsport Park over the weekend, winning all three races.
In GT4, Allan Sargeant took the round win, having picked up a win, third place, and fourth across the three races.
The Open Class podium places were filled by the AMG GT2 of Joel Giddy in second and the Porsche of Sam Fillmore in third.
The pairing of Tony Quinn and Kynan Yu were second in GT4 in a Porsche Cayman, with Steve Scoles in a Ginetta third.
Manson and Brock Gilchrist began the weekend strongly in Saturday’s 1-Hour race with respective class victories, returning to the track for two 30-minute outings on Sunday.
Sunday morning’s opener proved to be drama-filled, with an early incident on the opening lap seeing a safety car deployed after a collision between the Porsche of John Buchanan, the McLaren of Brock Gilchrist and the Mercedes-AMG of James Sax.
Buchanan was towed back to the pits while Sax limped back to make repairs to a damaged front right corner.
The collision caused the front bonnet on Gilchrist’s McLaren to fly up, smashing the windscreen. He returned to the pits for his team to secure the bonnet, and he returned to the circuit. However, officials black-flagged him due to the broken windscreen.
With the race restarted, Giddy led the field away, followed by Manson.
Quinn led the remaining GT4 runners before the pitstop window opened, and the majority of the field completed their stops.
There was trouble for the Mercedes-AMG GT2 of Paul Pedersen, who returned to the pits with engine troubles and eventually retired from the race.
There was a wild moment for Raana Horan on the final lap on contact with Paul Southam while the pair were battling for third. Horan’s race ended on the back of a tow truck.
With the chequered flag falling, it was Manson taking the race win in Open Class, with Mana Malmezac in second and Giddy third after Southam received a post-race penalty that knocked him off the podium.
In GT4, Allan Sargeant took the win, followed by Tony Quinn and Steve Scoles in third.
GT4 Championship leader Brock Gilchrist had an interesting outing for Race 3, with the Giltrap Motorsport team unable to replace the damaged windscreen, electing to remove it entirely. He would start from pitlane and circulate to gather valuable points.
The Porsche of Horan was unable to start due to damage sustained in the previous race, as to the Porsche of Buchannan. The AMG GT2 of Paul Pedersen also did not start due to an engine issue from race two.
The race was relatively uneventful and largely incident-free, and Manson was first across the line from Giddy and Fillmore.
Sax took the GT4 win from Cotterill and Allan Sargeant.
Manson’s dominant performance across the weekend saw him take the Championship lead from Rick Armstrong. He now sits on 873.5 points, just 13.5 points to the good of Armstrong on 860, with Fillmore in third on 832.
In GT4, and despite a troubled weekend, Gilchrist holds the lead on 994, with James Sax second on 856 and Garth Piesse third on 795.
The fifth and final round of the GT New Zealand Championship will be at Hampton Downs, March 15-17.
