In what is fast becoming Toyota New Zealand’s most closely fought championship ever – Chris White became the seventh winner in seven races of the inaugural Bridgestone GR86 Championship.
Starting on the second row, White in his James Marshall Motorsport-run GR86 quickly made his way up to second, past pole position holder Cooper Barnes then set off after Justin Allen, passing the experienced campaigner with a bold move around the outside of turn two on lap four.
The race was stopped after a nasty accident involving Master class runner Simon Hunter from which Simon emerged shaken but otherwise unscathed. At the restart, White showed a clean pair of heels to the field and assumed the lead again. Allen and Australian Lachlan Evennett – excelling once again after a superb restart – chased hard but couldn’t catch the youngster.
“It means so much,” said a beaming White afterwards. “I really want to thanks my sponsors Tony Quinn and Pak N Save for putting so much faith and support my way so it’s awesome to be able to get that race win. The team gave me a rapid car.”
Second was a very useful championship boost for Allen, especially as championship leader Hugo Allan had left himself an enormous amount of work to do after qualifying a lowly 21st. Hugo raced hard throughout and made up places in the early stages but found himself eventually caught in a battle with Zach Blincoe and Australian Jett Murray. Fourteenth was as high as he could manage. Justin Allen though had a great race, taking the lead after a superb start and fighting for the win throughout.
Behind White, Allen and Evennett, there was more bad news for Allan as Hayden Bakkerus had a good race from tenth on the grid and fought his way through to a highly impressive fourth by the end, revelling in the challenge of the fast paced and nose-to-tail racing that is now a permanent feature of the championship.
Cameron Hill started well from the second row but would fall behind Bakkerus and Josh Bethune for an eventual sixth, while Cormac Murphy came home seventh, ahead of Barnes who didn’t seem to have the race pace to match his impressive qualifying speed.
Taupo race winner Emerson Vincent brought his car home in ninth and Harry Townshend made progress to take the final place in the top ten after a frenetic and breathless 15 laps around the 2.6km track.
Header Image: Bruce Jenkins (TGRNZ)
