Round wins for Pedersen and Gilchrist in GT New Zealand Championship at wet Manfeild

It has been a successful debut for the new Mercedes AMG GT2 of Paul Pedersen, winning Round 2 of the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship at Manfeild this weekend, winning the open class.

It was also a successful weekend for championship leader Brock Gilchrist, who won the round in the GT4 class.

Race two of the weekend held this morning, turned out to be a chaotic affair.

A long safety car period to retrieve the stricken Porsche of Raana Horan chewed up valuable track time in the 30 minute race. On the restart, and with only around five minutes to go, another safety car was called when Allan Sargeant made heavy contact with the tyre barrier at turn one in his Ginetta. The rest of the race finished under safety car.

Where it got complicated for race officials, is that only around half of the competitors had made their compulsory pit stop before the first safety car period. With no pitstops able to be made during a safety car period.

Post-race, time had to added to the races times of a number of competitors which affected the final finishing order.

The eventual finishing order saw the Porsche of Luke Manson take the win in Open Class, followed by the Mercedes AMG GT2 of Paul Pedersen, another AMG of Joel Giddy in third.

The GT4 class saw a first win for the Mercedes AMG GT4 of Sam Cotterill, followed by James Sax, also in an AMG, with the McLaren of Brock Gilchrist third.

The final race of the weekend turned out to be a gamble for most teams and drivers.

A drying track, saw competitors start on wet tyres for the 30-minute race, with more rain forecast by race end.

Yesterday’s race winner, Clay Osborne took the lead from the start from pole sitter Pedersen, quickly developing a handy lead, while the AMG’s of Pedersen and Giddy were harassed by a gaggle of Porsche’s.

Racers all largely fell into a rhythm, until when the compulsory pitstop window opened at the 10-minute mark. All competitors took their stops within a couple of laps, and with the cycles completed, it was Rick Armstrong who found

With the chequered flag falling after 30-minutes of racing, it saw Rick Armstrong take the win in Open Class, with International Motorsport teammates, Luke Manson second, and Sam Filmore third.

The Open Class round podium was rounded out with Clay Osborne finishing second for the weekend and Rick Armstrong third.

The GT4 round podium was rounded out by James Sax, with Sam Cotterill third.

The next round of the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship is at Ruapuna,

9-11 February.