Nigel Cromie Takes Third Win of Season in Summerset GT New Zealand at Manfeild – Glen Chappel Wins in GT4

The opening race of the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon has been taken out by the Porsche of Nigel Cromie with Glen Chappel taking the win in the GT4 Class aboard his Toyota Supra.

Off the start, pole sitter Regan Scoullar lead the field from Cromie, Sam Fillmore, and championship leader Rick Armstrong.

Armstrong was lucky to start the race following a crash in qualifying. The International Motorsport team repairing the car in quick time, enabling it to get back on track for race one.

Off the start in GT4, Allan Sargeant lead, from Toyota teammate Glen Chappel with the Audi of Grant Aitken third and the Mercedes AMG of James Sax fourth.

Seven minutes into the race, the safety car was called for the Mercedes AMG of James Sax which found its way to the sand trap at turn one.

With the Sax AMG recovered, and off the restart, Scoullar lead from Cromie and Fillmore – Armstrong hounding the back of his International Motorsport team mate Fillmore.

The top four positions see-sawed in the Open Class, before Cromie took the lead from Scoullar – earning valuable championship points against leader Armstrong – taking the lead of the race with seven minutes to go in the 30-minute encounter.

Glen Chappel took the lead of GT4 from Sargeant, with the Audi of Grant Aitken in third. Sargeant slipping to third a handful of laps later.

With the chequered flag falling, it was the Porsche of Nigel Cromie in first, Regan Scoullar (Porsche) second, and Sam Fillmore (Porsche) third.

In GT4 it was Glen Chappel winning in his Toyota from Grant Aitken in his Audi R8, from the Toyota Supra of Allan Sargeant.

The Summerset GT New Zealand Championship have a further 30-minute race this morning before the 50-minute race this afternoon.