Championship Lead Change at the Half Way Point of the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship

Joel Giddy has taken the points lead after the completion of racing at Round 3 of the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship held at Invercargill this weekend.

The Mercedes AMG GT2 picked up a class win, a second and fourth placing netting him valuable points to overtake Rick Armstrong at the top of the points table, who had a DNF in race three which dented his championship defence.

With his haul of points, Giddy was the round winner, with AMG team mate Paul Pedersen second, and Sam Filmore in a Porsche third for the weekend.

The one-hour feature race win on Sunday afternoon went to Luke Manson, who put on an impressive display against young charger Marco Giltrap who applied immense pressure throughout the race. Manson managed to hold on however, claiming his first win of the season and netting valuable points and recovering from a poor race one result on Saturday.

In GT4 it was another dominant display from youngster William Exton in the McLaren Artura GT4, who claimed three race wins across the weekend.

Chasing him to the round podium was the combination of Ayrton Hodson and Mark Mallard who shared a Toyota Supra GT4, with the Mercedes AMG GT4 of James Sax third.

Marco Giltrap took our the Junior Pro honours, claiming two race wins and a second placing across the weekend, with Allan Sargeant taking honours in the Masters Class.

With three rounds down, and two to go, Joel Giddy leads on 620 points from Rick Armstrong in second on 584.5, with Sam Filmore second on 544.

In GT4, Exton leads with a healthy 724 points from James Sax in second on 590 with Allan Sargeant third on 563.5.

In the Porsche Endurance Trophy, Rick Armstrong still holds the lead, sitting on 584 points from Sam Filmore second on 538, with Luke Manson third on 518.

Marco Giltrap comfortably leads Junior Pro, while Australian driver Zoe Woods leads the GT4 standings on 150 points from Tony Quinn on 67.

The Summerset GT New Zealand Championship now heads to Highlands Motorsport Park at Cromwell for the second ‘South Island Double Header’ for round four of the Championship this weekend.

The Championship drivers will again compete across two 30-minute races and a one-hour feature race.