White takes win number two at Teretonga

A fantastic start was the foundation for a great win for Chris White at Teretonga this afternoon in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship third round feature race.

Having lost the series lead to Zach Blincoe in the morning’s race, White’s great drive allowed him to retakes the series lead in an epic championship year. Ajay Giddy capped a fine weekend with second place while Hugo Allan came home a fighting third.

“It was pretty tricky in those first few laps with Ajay pushing me really hard,” said Chris afterwards. “I didn’t try too hard to defend as it was wet off line. We knuckled down, hit our marks every lap and managed to get a gap later on, which was great as we haven’t been able to do that recently.”

At the start – on a much drier Teretonga track – White made an almost perfect start from the front row to comfortably out drag the rest of the field – including pole position holder Ajay Giddy – to the first turn. A bit of rallycross aside, everyone made it through but a corner or two later Mac Templeton spun off and out.

Behind the two leaders it was Zach Blincoe and Hugo Allan, with Josh Bethune and Simon Hunter tucked in behind them. And over the course of the first few laps a decent battle between the three developed.

Blincoe, who had struggled for pace earlier in the weekend, could not contain Allan who found a way through on lap nine. This unleashed Hugo instantly and he headed off after Giddy and White. Zach had gone wide during the moment and off track, but managed to recover and hold off Bethune – who had in turn run wide in avoidance – to maintain fourth.

At lap ten it was White, from Giddy, Allan, Blincoe, Bethune, Hunter, rookie Lee Zeltwanger, Cameron Hill, Arthur Broughan and race two winner Justin Allen in the top ten. There was plenty of action in this group to enjoy too, with Hunter, Zeltwanger, Hill and Broughan dicing side-by-side throughout laps 11 and 12.

At the front Blincoe was coming under increasing pressure from Bethune, and was doing well holding off a car which clearly had superior speed. On lap 16, however, Zach’s afternoon got even worse when he and Josh Bethune touched and he went off the circuit for the second time at high speed.

As before, he was able to recover but had lost vital places and that made the significance of White’s lead even bigger in terms of points lost. It put Bethune up to fourth with a clear track ahead of him but Josh’s move caught the eye of the race director and he was given a ten second time penalty.

Giddy never lost touch during the race as he and the leader traded fastest laps throughout the closing laps but White had it all under control and Ajay had to have one eye in his mirrors anyway due to Allan’s speed behind him.

At the flag it was a jubilant White, followed by Giddy, Bethune, Zeltwanger after a fine drive, Broughan, Hunter, Blincoe, Hill and Cooper Barnes. Allen would inherit the last place in the top ten after Bethune’s penalty was added.