Kiwi Ransley Strikes First in Best Bars Toyota 86 Opener
It's A Kiwi who leads the pack after the opening race of the Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship with Jaden Ransley taking the win at Pukekohe this afternoon leading home young Australian Jaylyn Robotham.
Starting from pole position, Ransley lead from start to finish during the 14-lap encounter, followed by Robotham, and another Kiwi flyer Brock Gilchrist in third.
At the start of the race Ransley was challenged through turns one, two and three by Vodanovich, with Ransley holding on to maintain the race lead as the field completed lap one.
The first handful of laps saw Vodanovich glued to the rear bumper of the Miles Toyota 86 of Ransley, with the Christchurch racer withstanding the pressure. This battle at the front allowed Jaylyn Robotham and Brock Gilchrist to close up on the leading duo.
While the battle behind him eased the pressure for Ransley, it meant Vodanovich had to turn to defence mode for his race.
Lap seven, saw Robotham made a decisive pass on Vodanovich into turn five at the end of the back straight, slotting into second place. A lap later Brock Gilchrist made a move on Vodanovich to take third.
As the race continued, lap 13 saw Connor Adam make his move on Vodanovich clinching fourth spot and relegating Vodanovich to fifth, where he remained until the chequered flag dropped.
The top ten was rounded out Justin Allen, Connor Davison, Richard Peasey, Andrew Jackson and Leo Bult.
For Ransley however, today’s win was the perfect start to his championship campaign.
“That’s awesome. After a great qualifying, it’s great to put that into a result and get a win,” said Ransley.
“I was holding Peter off there at the start. We struggled a bit with the car but managed to gain a bit of a gap when Jayln caught up to Peter and got past him.
“The car was awesome at the end, we just struggled a little bit at the start of the race, so we’ll have to look at that for tomorrow.”
The Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship has two more races tomorrow, 14-laps and 16-laps respectively.
