Weekend Motorsport Recap

A mistake in qualifying resulted in him missing the draft of the car ahead (a crucial part of speedway qualifying), resulting in a starting position of P35.

It’s no surprise that starting in P35 on a 38 car grid put SVG in a tricky position. He managed to gain a few positions soon after the Green Flag, but a pile up a few laps in forced him to slam the brakes on, leading to another driver rear ending him. SVG managed to limp back to the pits where they were able to get his car in good enough shape to get back on track, allowing him finish the race to get his license.

It’s a good thing too, because SVG managed to put any doubts that arose from his ARCA performance to rest by putting his #97 Chevrolet in P5 in his first ever NASCAR Xfinity qualifying; just a over a tenth of a second off the pole time.

The Xfinity race would not prove to be short on chaos either. SVG started from the third row on the inside and over the course of the next 120 laps, he would be involved in three incidents, go through nine caution periods, fall off the lead lap twice and finish the race with a whole load of duct tape on his #97 car.

Ultimately, SVG put on an mammoth performance, learning the complex strategy of NASCAR draft-racing with every lap to pull his Kaulig Racing car from a low of P31 and a lap down up to P12, crossing the line with the lead pack.

Sceats wins Highlands Motorsport Park's first New Zealand Grand Prix

Liam Sceats might have fallen just short of taking the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania title this weekend, but he took headlines when he won the New Zealand Grand Prix - the first held at Highlands Motorsport Park. After taking pole position in qualifying, Sceats won two out of three races this weekend, including a dominant performance in Sunday’s NZGP, where he lead from lights out to the checkered flag.

Callum Hedge flew back to New Zealand for a last-minute entry in to the New Zealand Grand Prix before he starts his full-time INDY NXT Season in the US in March. Hedge was up to speed rapidly in the FT-60, qualifying in second and finishing on the second step of the podium behind Sceats twice, including in the NZGP.

Kaleb Ngatoa had a tough weekend after breaking his hand in a crash in qualifying, ending his strong season early.

Tough weekend for Brock Gilchrist in GT New Zealand

Brock Gilchrist had a great start to the weekend, taking pole in qualifying and a win in the first race of the weekend.

Unfortunately, an incident in Race 2 led to a broken windscreen on his McLaren 570 GT4 and tough result.

For Race 3 they decided to run the car with no windscreen, but due to the damage, the Highlands round ended up being the only GTNZ round so far that Brock hasn’t won.