Giltrap maintains Championship lead amidst wild Porsche racing in South Australia
It was a hard-fought weekend of Porsche racing in South Australia this weekend. With young Kiwi, Marco Giltrap, battling amidst some of the week’s most dramatic racing action.
Race one commenced with Aussie driver Oscar Targett making a strong start from pole position, while series leader, Marco Giltrap was slower away from the outside of the front row, allowing another hard charging Aussie, Marcos Flack to gain an early advantage.
However, the race was quickly slowed behind the Safety Car following a significant impact on the left-hand side of the circuit for Giltrap’s teammate, Zak Stichbury.
The Team Porsche NZ / Earl Bamber Motorsport Whittaker’s driver was in a three-wide battle as the field charged up the hill to turn one, contact sending the young Kiwi spearing across the circuit in front of the field and into the concrete wall.
Stichbury emerged unscathed from the incident, but the car was unable to race for the remainder of the weekend.
Targett ultimately drove a measured first race to beat Giltrap by just over one second, fellow Kiwi, Ronan Murphy struggled for pace and came home in eighth.
The Sunday race was a thriller from the outset in one of the best displays of one-make Porsche racing this year. It commenced in changeable conditions as light rain swept across the circuit and Giltrap take the early lead with positions behind him changing rapidly as conditions gradually improved. Polesitter, Targett was on fire and although dropping to fourth initially he climbed back to second by lap three, Aron Shields then overtook both Targett and Giltrap for the lead by lap 14.
Shield’s time in front was short lived however as he took evasive action to avoid a spun car in front of him, handing the lead back to Giltrap.
Targett then pounced on lap 19 to grab the lead from Giltrap as Lachlan Bloxsom followed him through to second and Shields to third.
Bloxsom managed to jump to the lead on the following lap and then fended off attack after attack to cross the line first.
It was an exciting race with plenty of action, however, results changed quickly following the race.
Bloxsom was penalized five seconds for contact with Giltrap during their battle in the later stage of the race and Targett too was penalised, having 15 seconds added to his race time for overtaking under yellow flags at Turn one.
This handed the race victory to Aron Shields with Giltrap in second. Giltrap now holds a mighty 171-point lead in the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge Australia standings with 180 up for grabs in the season finale’ at Mount Panorama.
Blomqvist and Dixon on podium at Petite Le Mans
UK born, Kiwi raised, Tom Blomqvist, partnered with Colin Braun and Helio Castroneves for Meyer Shank Racing has emerged victorious in his final race as a full-time IMSA driver in the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.
Meanwhile the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, driven by Scott Dixon, Renger van der Zande, and Sebastien Bourdais, finished second in the race.
Fellow Kiwi IndyCar driver Scott Mclaughlin’s race was over before it began when his Tower Motorsports’ LMP2 teammate Ari Balogh ran into the wall on the race’s formation lap while warming the tyres, Balogh would crash again on the first lap. The team lost 23 laps due to repairs.
Haydon Paddon win seventh NZRC title
Kiwi Rally driver, Hayden Paddon has wrapped up a stellar 2023 to claim his seventh New Zealand Rally Championship title by winning the Rally Bay of Plenty with co-driver John Kennard.
Shane van Gisbergen came in second in his Audi S3 AP4 spec car and was able to claim 2 stage victories, followed by the Skoda New Zealand Rally Team’s Ben Hunt in third place.
Paddon secured the NZRC title after dominating the domestic championship all season, it was a very tight battle between Skoda driver’s Raana Horan and Ben Hunt, but after a DNF at South Canterbury mid-year, Hunt was frustratingly 8 points short of second in the championship.
