The GT New Zealand Championship will go down to the final race tomorrow at Ruapuna, with Nigel Cromie closing the gap to Rick Armstrong today with a win and a second placing across today’s two races at Ruapuna.
Taking the wheel of his Porsche 992 this morning, having missed yesterday’s race due to a family wedding and getting Tom Alexander to substitute, Cromie bounced back, taking a comfortable win.
He backed that up with a second placing in this afternoon’s race, with his nearest rival, Rick Armstrong, finishing behind him on both occasions.
Armstrong now leads with 1110 points, with Cromie now 69.5 points behind on 1040.5. It is mathematically possible that Cromie could reel in Armstrong and win the Championship tomorrow; however, more realistically, Cromie will need to win tomorrow’s 40-minute race, and Armstrong would need to have a DNF.
But as they say, it’s motorsport, and anything can happen.
In GT4, Glen Chappel has claimed the Championship title with one race to spare, finishing his championship with 1176.25 points, leaving Grant Aitken and Allan Sargeant to battle it out tomorrow for second and third in tomorrow’s final race of the season.
On track across today’s two races, Cromie took the Open Class win in the morning’s race, with Lachlan Evennett winning in GT4.
In this afternoon’s race, youngster Regan Scoullar took a commanding flag-to-flag victory in Open Class, his first of the season.
In GT4, veteran Greg Murphy took the win aboard the Audi R8 GT4 he shares with Grant Aitken.
The GT New Zealand Championship have one more race tomorrow, which will round out the 2025/26 season. It will be a 40-minute race, scheduled to begin at 10.40am.
Header Image: Tayler Burke/Shots By Tay B
