Outstanding talent from home and Australia looks set to make the forthcoming Bridgestone GR86 Championship one of the most closely fought motorsport competitions in recent years in New Zealand.
The Championship has 15 confirmed drivers and it’s probably the most open and unpredictable of the GR86 model era so far. Margins of around a second across the field in recent years could be reduced to just a few tenths.
Each and every one has a chance of podiums and race wins based on their racing records, driving ability and lap times form testing in the build-up to Taupo and the first round of the Repco NextGen NZ Motorsport Championship series – the PTS Logistics Season Opener.
First up are two of the fastest young drivers from the Australian motorsport scene who will add international flavour for this season.
Mathew Basso and Romeo Nasr both bring a record of winning to New Zealand. Basso is a race winner from the cut-and-thrust Aussie Race Cars category and has time in NZ Formula Ford under his belt. Nasr has a GR Cup win from the past season on his racing CV too. Both are coming to New Zealand focussed on winning.
Top runners who competed in the championship last season include veteran Justin Allen – insisting this will be his final hurrah in a GR86 after eight seasons in the championship – as well as exciting young prospects Ajay Giddy, Mac Templeton, Harry Townshend, Lucas McGill and Cameron Hill. All are aiming to deliver strong results and champion ship challenging campaigns.
McGill looked particularly strong in pre-season testing as did Hill – both having switched teams for this coming season.
A host of young talent from the Toyota Trophy Series over the winter take a solid slice of the field in the main game and all demonstrated great speed and promise in the older model series just a couple of months ago.
Tayler Mitchell won that series – pretty much in the final few laps of the final race, while Nathan Grammer, Nieko Scoles, Riley Boswell, Miles Baker and Marcel Bartley all won races or took podium finishes.
GT4 racer and former Formula Ford racer Blake Dowdall is another eye-catching entry as he looks to give his career a major boost towards a full-time career in GT or Supercars across the ditch.
It’s going to be a weekend of close racing according to Category Manager Amanda Kibble.
“There’s an argument for each and every one of them in terms of picking winners and star performers for this coming weekend,” she explained.
“The racing has always been closely fought in this championship, with the previous model and with the new model but we genuinely feel this one is going to be an outstanding one where consistency and qualifying are not just going to be important, they are going to be absolutely critical across all five rounds.”
Action at the Taupo Motorsport Park – where weather could be a factor throughout the first round of the championship – begins on Friday with three practice sessions. On Saturday the drivers complete qualifying and the first race and on Sunday there will be two races.
