White fights sickness to win

A gripping race for the podium places and top 10 was of no interest to Chris White as he put illness aside to race home to his first win of the season in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship.

The Neale Motorsport driver led from lights to flag at Hampton Downs on January 11 and won by a relatively comfortable two seconds.

White, pictured, took pole position in Saturday’s qualifying session and got away well to lead Arthur Broughan and Josh Bethune through the first sequence of turns as the 12-lap feature race got under way. 

As they crossed the line for the first time, it was White with a few car lengths over Broughan, who had Bethune, Zach Blincoe, Harry Townshend, Hugo Allan, Ajay Giddy, Cooper Barnes, Lee Zeltwanger and Mac Templeton close behind.

Giddy pulled a nice move on Allan around the downhill hairpin on lap two as Barnes also fancied his chances against the reigning champion as the two rubbed a few corners later.

White, meanwhile, built up a one-and-a-half-second lead over the pack as they started lap four – a decent margin early in the race. 

Bethune launched attacks on Broughan as White continued to streak away. By the halfway mark, the two main packs had more or less linked up to form a 12-car train behind Broughan.

It couldn’t last. Bethune’s efforts took a step backwards when Blincoe caught him napping as he tried to pass Broughan on lap eight, Blincoe slipping down the inside to take third.

White cruised through the last few laps to take his first win of the season. He says: “I felt a bit crook to be honest. The lead gave me a bit of a breather and I focused on not making any mistakes. I’m just glad I was able to hang on for the win.”

Broughan survived to finish second while Bethune brought his car home third. Townshend found a way by Blincoe for fourth late on, leaving the latter to come home fifth.

Bethune secures first victory

Josh Bethune bagged his first win of the GR86 season with a fine drive on January 10. He made a fine getaway from pole position to lead rival Chris White.

White, however, was quickly onto his rear fender and stayed there for the eight-lap battle, with Bethune’s solid defence bringing Zach Blincoe, Hugo Allan, Ajay Giddy and Harry Townshend into play within a couple of laps after the front two had initially broken away.

White’s efforts hugging the inside of turn one as he tried to get enough of a slingshot to have an attack at turn two had the crowd on their feet, but there was nothing he could do as Blincoe, Allan and Giddy eyed up their own attacks.

Series leader Arthur Broughan drove into contention by lap five too and gave chase to Townshend as he sought another strong result around the 3.8km track.

In the closing stages, Bethune managed to build a lead of a few tenths of a second – never enough to be secure, but perhaps just enough to make White focus on defence rather than attack. A fine performance gave the Right Karts By M2 Competition driver his first win of the season.

White came home second with Blincoe third. Allan kept himself in the mix with fourth, while Giddy – the youngest driver in the field – was a solid fifth. Townshend did manage to hold off Broughan for sixth, which left him in seventh at the flag.

There’s a short break now before the teams head to Teretonga Park in the South Island for round three on January 23.