Wins for Giltrap and Exton in Terrific Teretonga Opener in Summerset GT New Zealand Championship

The Porsche 992 of Marco Giltrap has taken victory in the first race of the weekend in the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship at Teretonga today.

The Mercedes AMG GT2 of Joel Giddy second, with Sam Filmore, in a Porsche 992 third.

In GT4, it was the McLaren of William Exton who took the class win, the Toyota Supra of Kaleb Ngatoa second, the Mercedes AMG of James Sax third.

From the start, pole sitter Marco Giltrap was challenged by Luke Manson, the pair making contact through the fast turn one, Manson ending up in a spin and off the track, however managing to restart his Porsche and rejoining the race.

Giltrap went on to lead the rest of the race relatively unchallenged, and took line honours when the chequered flag fell. However the win was in doubt post-race when there was investigation by the stewards for the lap one contact with Manson.

Post race, Giltrap was handed a 10-second time penalty, which didn’t affect the finishing result given that he finished 12-seconds ahead of Giddy.

In GT4, there was despair for the Toyota Supra of Kaleb Ngatoa who lead much of the GT4 race from a fast charging Exton. However a miscalculation in the fuel load on the car by the Race Lab team meant that Ngatoa had to conserve fuel from lap one.

The Exton McLaren had started from pitlane due to repairs needed from qualifying. The team had experienced an issue with an alternator module, and so were in a rush to get the car ready for race one. Getting the car out on the grid in time for the formation laps, they had to pit to adjust tyre pressures, and so Exton started from pitlane.

With Ngatoa conserving fuel the whole race, Exton managed to come through the field, catching the Supra. Making an assertive dive on the last corner on the penultimate lap, Exton made his way into the lead pushing Ngatoa back to finish second.

In Open Class the top five was rounded out by Rick Armstrong in fourth, with Paul Pedersen fifth. Mark Mallard rounded out the rest of the GT4 runners.

The Summerset GT New Zealand Championship have one more 30-minute race tomorrow before the 1-hour feature.