Rising young New Zealander to join Tony Quinn at Queensland Raceway

Another rising star of the New Zealand motorsport landscape will receive an opportunity to compete in Monochrome GT4 Australia courtesy of the Tony Quinn Foundation, with Chris White to make his series debut at Queensland Raceway.

The 18-year-old will team up with Quinn in the Game Over-sponsored Toyota Supra GT4 Evo2 in Round 3 of Monochrome GT4 Australia at Queensland Raceway, replacing New Zealand Toyota 86 Championship winner Hugo Allan in the hot seat.

White took the Rookie of the Year standings in the New Zealand Toyota 86 Championship but was nominated alongside Allan for this opportunity due to his impressive performances during his maiden season.

A recent graduate from karting, White previously contested the Mazda Pro8 NZ one-make category using the RX-8 sports car where he finished runner up in his maiden season before achieving the title in the next season.

Making the step up to the New Zealand Toyota GR86 Championship this season proved successful for White by winning the Rookie of the Year award and scoring sixth outright.

White will be aiming to emulate Allan’s success at Sydney Motorsport Park where he achieved a Silver-Am Cup podium with Tony Quinn in Race 2.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” said White.

“I won the Tony Quinn Foundation Scholarship before the season and we heard about the GT4 opportunity as a prize for the Toyota 86 Championship, which was a pretty cool addition.

“When it was announced Hugo and I had won it, I was pretty gobsmacked.

“I watched all the races and Hugo did real well with Tony, so it was cool to watch and I can’t wait to race in Australia.

“I’ve tested a Supra GT4 and I’ve been driving a lot around Ruapana in a Toyota 86, plus I got the opportunity to drive a BMW E46 M3 GT-R giving me a close experience of a GT4 car. I’ve tried to prepare in faster cars, but a sponsor of mine has a big sim and I’ve been cutting laps around Queensland Raceway in a GT4.

“I’m going to follow in the footsteps of Hugo by keeping it clean and hopefully getting a podium or two in Silver-Am, which I think would be pretty cool.”

The next round for Monochrome GT4 Australia will be at EVENTelec GT Festival at Queensland Raceway as part of the Shannons SpeedSeries on May 30-June 1.

Purchase tickets for EVENTelec GT Festival Queensland via speedseries.com.au/tickets.