Wins for Osborne and Sax in GT New Zealand Championship at Hampton Downs

Clay Osborne has taken the win in the Open Class of the Summerset GT New Zealand Championship, with James Sax winning in GT4, in the first race of the final round at Hampton Downs today.

Sunny conditions greeted the opening encounter of the weekend, and saw the Mercedes AMG of GT2 of Paul Pedersen lead from pole position from the start, with the Porsche Cayman GT4 of Tony Quinn leading the GT4 field.

Osborne slipped into second place, with Rick Armstrong slotting into third with Joel Giddy in an AMG pushing from behind to gain further spots.

Lap five saw an awkward incident between Rick Armstrong and International Motorsport team mate Sam Filmore. Filmore making contact with Armstrong on the exit of turn one, sending the former into the gravel trap.

Armstrong managed to re-join, but down the order.

With the pitstop window open after 20-minutes, the first of the field started to pit, Armstrong being one of the first. Followed by the Porsche’s of Paul Southam and Sam Filmore.

The GT4 competitors followed suit with the McLaren of Championship leader Brock Gilchrist making his stop, followed by the BMW of Garth Piesse.

The Tony Quinn Porsche Cayman pitted and handed over to co-driver Kynan Yu.

With the field having all pitted, Paul Southam found himself leading the field, with James Sax leading the GT4 field.

There was a late safety car with around 5-minutes to go, for the stricken Porsche of race leader Paul Southam. The race was eventually red flagged, and when re-started saw

With the chequered flag falling after 60 minutes of racing, Clay Osborne held on to take the win in Open Class, with Sebastian Manson second, and Rob Steele third.

In GT4, James Sax took the win in an AMG, with the Ginetta of Allan taking second place, and Sam Cotterill third in his AMG.

Tomorrow will see the final two thirty minute races of the season take place.