Allan resists the pressure to win

Hugo Allan led from lights to flag – but only just – to take his first win on the road this season in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship and move to second place in the title chase.

Starting from pole position he and championship leader Hayden Bakkerus were side-by-side until the first corner and part of the way through it, but it was Allan who emerged in front.

Hayden was never far behind for the entire eight lap race, but there was nothing he could do about Allan, who stretched his lead from the field and didn’t put a foot wrong.

“It’s nice to take that first proper win, it’s such a complicated racetrack that it’s nice to know we have some good speed here,” said Allan afterwards, the winning margin over Bakkerus just two seconds.

“You have to get everything right and we seem to be doing that at the moment. It is very satisfying to be back where we belong, especially after a bad round last weekend at Teretonga. It’s fair to say though, I always look forward to a round at Highlands.

“Hayden wasn’t going to back out at the start, and neither was I. It was cool heading into turn one. We bumped doors a bit but it was very fair racing.”

Bakkerus had a good enough race in second place and maintained his championship lead, while Chris White came from fourth on the grid to take the final step on the podium after Lachlan Evennett had fallen back from that challenge and into the clutches of the battle for fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth behind.

That battle was a feature of the race and had included Josh Bethune before contact sent Josh into a half spin and down the order. That also sent Justin Allen to the back of the field – a blow to his championship hopes.

The finishing order behind the top three would end up being Evennett in fourth. Behind him a fired-up Cormac Murphy took fifth for his best result of the championship so far, two seconds up the road from Australians Cooper Barnes and Jett Murray, with Zach Blincoe in eighth after a fine drive from sixteenth n the grid, Simon Hunter ninth and top Master and a recovering Bethune in tenth.

2024-2025 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 4 Highlands – Race 1