Tony Quinn Foundation Ambassador Lucas McGill has officially completed his first-ever weekend of car racing, making his debut in the Bridgestone Toyota GR86 Championship at Hampton Downs — and what a milestone it was for the 17-year-old Kiwi.
McGill arrived at the round with an enormous challenge ahead. Having spent the past four years carving out success in karting, Hampton Downs marked his very first competitive outing in a race car.
It was a big step up — and with the GR86 grid stacked with ambitious young talent, it was always going to be a fierce learning curve.
He got his first laps behind the wheel of the #25 James Marshall Motorsport GR86 during Thursday testing, before settling into three official practice sessions on Friday. In the opening session, McGill immediately impressed, climbing well inside the Top 10 with a best of 1:49.447, just six-tenths off pace-setter Chris White Jr, last year’s TQF GR86 Shootout winner.
He completed 11 laps, the most of any driver and finished the session an excellent seventh.
Track temperatures rose for Practice 2, slowing lap times, but McGill again delivered consistently, with his three best laps all within five-hundredths of a second.
His 1:50.730 put him 15th, and he backed that up in Practice 3 with a 1:50.324, trimming another four-tenths from his earlier effort. It was a day of steady progress and valuable mileage heading into qualifying.
Saturday morning’s qualifying session set the grid using each driver’s two best laps — their fastest for Race 3, and second-fastest for Race 1. In a highly competitive field, McGill showed flashes of strong pace, setting quick sectors but unable to quite string them all together cleanly across one lap.
His best of 1:50.127 secured him 15th for Race 3, while his second-fastest time, a 1:50.354 set on his final attempt, would also see him line up 15th for the opening race. Both efforts were just a few tenths shy of experienced front-runners like Justin Allen, who finished third in last year’s series.
Later that afternoon, it was time for the big moment, McGill’s first-ever race start. He launched cleanly, holding position through the opening corners and quickly tucking into a close-fought pack featuring Mac Templeton, Cormac Murphy, and Allen.
From there he matched their pace lap-for-lap, closing back in through the final stages to finish a composed 15th, just half a second off the group ahead — a tidy, incident-free debut to be proud of.
Sunday morning’s second race brought another valuable run. After bogging down slightly off the line, McGill regrouped quickly, finding his rhythm and pouncing when opportunities arose.
When Simon Hunter and Allen went off at the hairpin, he seized the moment to climb to 14th before engaging in a spirited battle to the line, ultimately taking 15th once more and showing a stronger pace on cold tyres and in wheel-to-wheel racing.
The final race of the weekend, a 12-lap feature on Sunday afternoon, provided plenty of action. McGill avoided early chaos at Turn 2 and jumped to 13th, then immediately latched onto the back of Justin Allen, setting up a thrilling multi-lap fight.
The pair ran side-by-side through the final corner and continued wheel-to-wheel down the main straight, staying door-to-door through Turns 1 and 2 before McGill finally completed the move into Turn 3 to grab 12th.
Allen came back at him soon after, diving down the inside at Turn 1 a few laps later. The exchange left McGill wide and allowed Cameron Hill and Mac Templeton to sneak through, with McGill settling back into 15th — where he would remain for the run to the flag.
Over the closing laps he reeled Hill back in, pushing hard right to the finish and ending just 0.13 seconds behind. It was another gritty drive that showed growing racecraft and composure under pressure.
Across the weekend, McGill demonstrated clear growth, maturity, and solid race pace — gaining valuable experience with every session and already mixing it with some of the category’s most seasoned names.
For a young driver making his first steps from karts into national-level circuit racing, it was a hugely encouraging debut.
He now has two months to regroup, go over data, and get ready for Round 2 of the season, which takes place at Hampton Downs over January 9–11, 2026.
Header Image: Bruce Jenkins
