Giddy catches the eye on final day of testing at Highlands
On a long and daunting circuit which requires immense commitment through three very fast sections, young Ajay Giddy was perhaps the most impressive driver at Highlands today.
A solid two days of testing saw him establish himself as a real contender for some big results this weekend at the fourth round of the Bridgestone GR86 Championship.
At just 13, Ajay could be forgiven for being somewhere down the order in a closely matched pack of older, more experienced, and equally determined older drivers, but he ended the day at Highlands having been fast in all three of the day’s sessions. He had been impressive on Thursday too.
Yesterday he was second quickest, on Friday morning he was eighth quickest, in the second session he was sixth. And he finished his pre-race weekend testing third fastest in the final session.
Emerson Vincent topped the morning times finishing just ahead of Chris White, Cooper Barnes and Hugo Allan. All three were consistently among the fastest during Thursday testing, so a good showing throughout Friday would be as good an indicator as you could get that they would be on the pace over the Highlands weekend.
Australian Jett Murray was next up in fifth ahead of countryman Lachlan Evennett, the fast youngster making his third and final appearance this weekend in the championship. Zach Blincoe – due a good result this weekend – was seventh, while Giddy clocked eighth. Thomas Mallard and Josh Bethune were ninth and tenth.
The second and perhaps more telling session as a pointer to form for the weekend saw Bakkerus go fastest with Allan, Blincoe, White, Bethune, Giddy, Harry Townshend, Hayden Lines, Arthur Broughan and Murray filling the rest of the top ten spots on the timesheet.
The championship’s only double race winner – Just Allen – was not in that front pack and was down in 18th a little off the pace. Sitting in the championship points, the experienced Feilding racer had plenty to do but in the final session was 18th again.
That session was topped by race winner Cooper Barnes with Bakkerus again fast in second ahead of Giddy. Zach Blincoe was a competitive fourth, a positive end to his two days of testing, while Vincent concluded his strong day with fifth. And he was just a fraction ahead of championship contender Hugo Allan in sixth.
A super-competitive weekend lies ahead and it all gets underway on Saturday morning with qualifying.
