The opening race of the GT New Zealand Championship at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon has been taken out by the Porsche of Nigel Cromie, with Glen Chappel taking the win in the GT4 Class aboard his Toyota Supra.
Off the start, pole sitter Regan Scoullar led the field from Cromie, Sam Fillmore, and championship leader Rick Armstrong.
Armstrong was lucky to start the race following a crash in qualifying. The International Motorsport team repaired the car quickly, enabling it to get back on track for race one.
Off the start in GT4, Allan Sargeant led from Toyota teammate Glen Chappel, with the Audi of Grant Aitken third and the Mercedes AMG of James Sax fourth.
Seven minutes into the race, the safety car was called for the Mercedes AMG of James Sax, which ended up in the sand trap at turn one.
With the Sax AMG recovered, and off the restart, Scoullar led from Cromie and Fillmore – Armstrong hounding the back of his International Motorsport team mate Fillmore.
The top four positions saw-sawed in the Open Class before Cromie took the lead from Scoullar, earning valuable championship points against leader Armstrong, taking the lead of the race with seven minutes to go in the 30-minute encounter.
Glen Chappel took the lead of GT4 from Sargeant, with the Audi of Grant Aitken in third. Sargeant slipped to third a handful of laps later.
With the chequered flag falling, it was the Porsche of Nigel Cromie in first, Regan Scoullar (Porsche) second, and Sam Fillmore (Porsche) third.
In GT4, it was Glen Chappel winning in his Toyota from Grant Aitken in his Audi R8, from the Toyota Supra of Allan Sargeant.
The GT New Zealand Championship have a further 30-minute race tomorrow morning before the 50-minute race tomorrow afternoon.
Header Image: Tayler Burke
