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Winning Weekend for Giltrap Motorsport

Giltrap Motorsport teammates Marco Giltrap and William Exton have set the stage on fire with a remarkable display of teamwork. They have delivered a flawless start to the GT New Zealand season, sweeping both the GT3 and GT4 classes in the opening races in Taupo.

While drama surrounds a controversial crash in the closing stages of the weekend, the opening round of the Summerset GT New Zealand championship has only left happy memories for the SP Tools-backed race team.

Racing in the new Junior Pro class, Giltrap claimed the first chequered flag of the season, well clear of Rick Armstrong, who took the win in Open Class. The Junior Pro class within Open is designed for young drivers wanting to enter the series, albeit running their Porsche cars in a different specification—no traction control and no ABS braking, whereas the Open cars have those driver aids.

Slick work from his pit crew gave Giltrap Porsche the winning boost on lap 14. Before the stop, the No.66 Porsche GT3 Giltrap was in fourth after a sluggish start to the race. “It wasn't as straightforward as we wanted; our plan was to get in the lead early…unfortunately, the opposite happened. But I knew I was a long race and hard on the tyres, so I just settled into a good pace and saved my rubber for the finish,” said Giltrap.

Once clear, the 20-year-old was in a class of his own, winning the one-hour season opener by a comfortable margin.


In the GT4 class, GT rookie Exton maintained a commanding lead over his rivals, scoring the first win for the new McLaren Artura; the Blenheim racer almost pulled a lap on his rivals “The car was good from lap one to the end, and the team was awesome helping me get through the traffic.”

Giltrap Racing repeated the effort on Sunday, with Marco taking the flag in both 30-minute races. However, his second victory was only down by a controversial late-race incident, when Sam Fillmore rear-ended Armstrong, who was leading the race and the weekend. The crash denied him the Open Class victory and left Giltrap to take line honours.