Evennett hangs on for win in debut weekend

Young Australian Lachlan Evennett made the most of a great start in a reverse grid format to take a hard fought win in the second race of round two of the Bridgestone GR86 Championship at Hampton Downs this morning.

Starting from pole position on the grid – a reverse top ten from Saturday’s first race - the Action Motorsport driver made a great getaway to take the lead into turn one and begin a race long battle with Cameron Hill and Emerson Vincent.

The biggest pressure on the leader - who also races in the GR86 series in Australia - came on the last lap, but Evennett kept his nerve and raced home to win by just seven hundredths of a second from Hill after a fantastic race. The youngster was delighted to take his first win – in his first ever weekend in the championship, his first time at the Hampton Downs track and his first time in the NZ specification GR86.

“It’s a great way to start the year coming down here but I have to thank the guys at Action Motorsport, they have welcomed me into the team and given me an awesome race car,” he said. “I didn’t come here expecting to do this well so it’s pretty incredible and surreal. I felt comfortable in the middle but I had a lot of pressure on me at the end but I got it done.”

Evennett took the lead impressively at the start with a textbook getaway to lead out of turn one ahead of Cameron Hill, Emerson Vincent, Saturday pole position holder Arthur Broughan and Zach Blincoe.

The action was frenetic in the first few laps but any progress through the field looked tough. Making their way through the field in the early stages were championship leader Hugo Allan and podium finisher on Saturday Josh Bethune. Saturday winner Justin Allen was finding going a little bit tougher though and couldn’t quite match the early progress of his rivals.

Hill started to pile pressure on the leader Evennett from as early as the second lap before Vincent got ahead of him and took his turn.  One of the early frontrunners Zach Blincoe fell back form third in the early laps as he lost a gear but interest in that portion of the race was quickly filled by a titanic battle for fourth and fifth between Allan and Bethune.

At the halfway point it settled down somewhat with Evennett ahead of Vincent, Hill, Allan, Bethune, a fading Blincoe, Chris White, Arthur Broughan, Hayden Bakkerus and a frustrated Allen.

Evennett built a lead of a few tenths and looked home and dry until the final couple of laps when the gap closed right up and it became a five car battle for glory. Evennett, Vincent, Hill, Allan and Bethune were covered by fractions of a second.

With two laps to go Hill was the man on the move and passed Vincent before quickly reeling in Evennett.   As they surged into the final lap Allan fought his way to third catching Vincent a bit by surprise with a bold move but that let the lead two get away by a couple of car lengths.  Vincent then fought back and took Bethune with him back past Allan and that’s how it stayed until the flag, which Evennett took first by the smallest of margins.

Behind the top five Chris White had another solid run to sixth, Bakkerus climbed to seventh, Allen eventually made it up to eighth with Broughan and Mason Potter rounding out the top ten.

2024-2025 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 2 Hampton Downs Race 2