White wins GR86 title
Chris White has been crowned the 2025/26 Bridgestone GR86 champion after coming home second in the second – and final race – of the weekend at Taupo Motorsport Park.
The Christchurch driver had to defend his position in following waves of attacks from Cooper Barnes but held on for second on the road behind Cameron Hill.
That was enough to see the Neale Motorsport driver – the star of the championship for virtually all six rounds – take the title ahead of Zach Blincoe in second and Hugo Allan in third.
White says: “It feels awesome and the first thing is to thank every member of the team for the fantastic job they have done all season. They have put so much time and hard work into the car.
“It was certainly hectic out there. I got a lot of wheelspin at the start and that put me on the back foot. I was comfortably behind Cam at that stage. There was plenty going on behind me as Cooper was sending it every time he got an opportunity so that made it all quite difficult.
“We were really fast on Friday but just missed the window and in qualifying too. It’s difficult to pass in these cars and that hampered us in the first race on Saturday morning, but I’m glad we were able to show in that final race the real speed of the car and how we had found it again.
“Getting the most out of the car and myself have been features of this season. It’s been a real team effort and I’m delighted to be champion.”
With the third race on Sunday cancelled following the decision to close the track due to the pending arrival of Cyclone Vaianu, race two of the weekend – the reverse top eight of the morning’s first race – was the season finale. It was the best news possible for championship leader White, who started on the front row after his seventh-place finish in the morning’s race.
Alongside White on the front row, Hill had his first pole of the year. His team-mates Barnes and Josh Bethune filled the second row and White’s nearest challenger, Zach Blincoe, was down in sixth.
Crucially, White emerged from the early corners in second. Further back, Blincoe and Allan were on the move quickly, and at the end of the first lap were in fifth and sixth respectively.
White survived a hit from Barnes on the second lap as they slugged it out and on lap three Justin Allen’s race came to an end after he damaged his steering in contact with Harry Townshend.
Out front it was still all nose-to-tail, but Hill was hanging on with White looking ever-more ominous behind as he counted down the laps. At the halfway mark the top five were covered by less than one second with Hill leading White, Barnes, Bethune and Blincoe.
Giddy was leading the next group a second and half further back, effectively preventing Allan from making any championship challenge. With Blincoe ahead, second overall was slipping away too. The reigning champion gave it everything on the final couple of laps but could do nothing to get through the battle ahead.
At the flag it was Hill from White, Barnes, Bethune, Blincoe, Giddy, Allan, Broughan, Townshend and Neale Motorsport’s second driver Mac Templeton.
The first race of the weekend resulted in a fine win for Allan in while and third-placed Blincoe closed the gap on White. Giddy’s pace got him to within a car length of Allan on the penultimate lap, but the latter held firm and looked assured.
White joins a long list of drivers to secure the Toyota 86 title and took home the overall prize of three rounds in the Monochrome GT4 Australia series. Runner-up Blincoe wins one round in the series. Both will race the GR Supra Evo.
