Big Weekend For Kiwi Motorsport

NZGP

Motorsport icon, Greg Murphy, led the field into formation for the 67^th running of the New Zealand GP and did so in the equally iconic 1973 Mclaren Yardley F1 car originally driven by Denny Hulme. Kiwi racers claimed four to the top ten slots at this weekend’s New Zealand Grand Prix, with 18-year-old Auckland-based, Giltrap Group supported racer Callum Hedge leading the locals to take third spot overall.

Rising Dutch star Laurens van Hoepen left his rivals in his tracks as he dominated the 67th New Zealand Grand Prix to take the win, however. He was followed by British racer Louis Foster who also took pole position and the race’s fastest lap.

Kiwis Chris Van Der Drift and Kaleb Ngatoa rounded out the top five, while Liam Sceats was the final local driver in the top ten, finishing in 6th place.

Super GT

Also during the Grand Prix weekend, Luke Manson took Open Class round honours for the GT New Zealand Championship in a Porsche 991, while the GT4 Class was taken out by David Cremer and Jason Liefting in their McLaren 570s.

Earlier in the weekend, Rob Steele held off Wayne Leach (who eventually took second overall for the round) to take the top step of the podium for the Open Class in the opening race at Hampton Downs in his SIXT-sponsored Porsche 991.2, with another SIXT-sponsored 911.2 of Marco Giltrap rounding out the podium.

Bathurst 12 Hour

The Liqui Moly Bathurst 12 Hour endurance race also took place over the weekend, with a strong showing from the New Zealand drivers who lined up on the grid.

After 12 grueling hours the race was decided by one of the closest margins of all time, with just 1.4 seconds separating the top three cars and Jules Gounon, Kenny Habul and Luca Stolz taking the overall win in the SunEnergy1 Mercedes.

While Shane van Gisbergen looked to be the best Kiwi hope for the weekend, he struggled for pace in the Triple Eight Engineering Mercedes, consistently lapping slower than his two co-drivers, Broc Feeney (Australia) and Maximilian Gotz (Germany). A penalty in the 9th hour was a late setback, but they recovered to finish 5th.

Richie Stanaway finished 3rd in the Pro-Am class, teamed up with Jamie Whincup and Prince Jefri Ibrahim, which was enough to also score them 10th place overall, but the Kiwi winners on the day were Daniel Gaunt and Andrew Fawcett who, partnered with Australian racer Dylan O’Keeffe, came first in the Class A Silver group in the Myland Team IMS Audi R8, which was also good enough for 12th overall.

Murph returns to his roorts.

Aside from the honour of driving Denny Hulme’s restored F1 car, Greg Murphy lined up alongside the next generation of Kiwi motorsport stars in the Giltrap North Island Formula Ford series.

The four-time Bathurst winner finished third in the 1990/91 New Zealand Formula Ford series, which was won by Andy McElrea, but got back behind the wheel of a FFord for the Grand Prix, which saw him compete in the three races across the weekend.

The first race saw Murphy finish 4th in his Van Diemen RF92, behind Dylan Grant, Alex Crosbie and Blake Knowles, while he dropped to 5th in the second race. But the third race saw the V8 Supercars legend storm back to a strong second place finish after starting from outside the top ten, showing that the 50-year-old could still foot it with the youngsters.