Townshend wins but Trophy Series prize goes to Zeltwanger

Lee Zeltwanger followed up his earlier win with another podium finish to become the inaugural Toyota 86 Trophy Series champion and secure the next step in what is proving to be a promising career.

A conservative third place finish in Sunday afternoon’s 25 lap series finale behind race winner Harry Townshend and Ajay Giddy was more than enough to secure the title.

The Massey racer – who won with new team Skunkworks Motorsport – can now look forward to a full season in TOYOTA GAZOO Racing NZ’s ‘main game’, the 2025-26 Bridgestone GR86 Championship.

An impressive debut campaign in Toyota 86 racing saw him take the lead of the championship from the very first race – a lead he has not relinquished throughout the four round winter series for rookie racers.

Zeltwanger’s series success secures not only a free lease of a GR86 but also free support from a race and championship winning engineer and mechanic, supported by CareVets. It’s a dream come true for the 23-year-old.

“I can’t wait until the next season begins,” said Lee on the podium. “I have to thank my team Skunkworks for the excellent job they have done over the winter. It’s been great getting the racing miles in and learning more about driving and it’s going to be awesome putting that to work in the next stage of my career.”

The last race of the winter series was won in style by Townshend who led from lights to flag. He built a decent lead which hovered around the two second mark ahead of Ajay Giddy but in the closing laps Giddy poured on the pressure and got onto Harry’s rear bumper. Townshend was excellent in his consistency and maintained his strong pace of low 1 minute 43 second laps right through to the end to take the flag.

Townshend and Giddy would finish the campaign second and third behind Zeltwanger in the overall points. Behind those three, Corban Sprague eventually came out best after a long battle with Toby Elmiger, passing him on the drag to the flag on the final lap. Neither ultimately had the pace to get past the Skunkworks Motorsport car, but theirs was the best duel in the race. A post-race penalty for Sprague would see him demoted to sixth on the results, however.

Nathan Grammer got stuck behind Matt Day early on and could have perhaps joined and stayed with the battle for third but he ultimately had a lonely race on his way to fifth. Behind Sprague, Day was seventh and Mitch Vye wasn’t too far behind the pack in eighth.