White all set for Bathurst debut

Rising New Zealand motorsport talent Chris White is all set to make his Bathurst debut this coming weekend when he joins the Australian GR Cup (GR86 Championship) for its biggest annual round at the great race.

Christchurch-based White – who was recently confirmed for a second season in the New Zealand Bridgestone GR86 Championship – won the drive as part of his prize package as top Rookie in the 2024-2025 Championship and says he cannot wait to get out on track at Mount Panorama.

“This weekend will definitely be a high point in my racing career so far,” he explained.

“I know it’s going to be a huge weekend and like most drivers will have done I have been doing a lot of sim work and studying video footage from previous years’ events looking for any information that will help me get up to speed quickly.”

White proved he has plenty of speed in a GR86, winning a race in New Zealand in his debut season as well as scoring multiple top six results. Despite that, he expects the Bathurst weekend to be a tough one.

“My biggest goal will to be to secure a top ten place finish,” he added. “That’s simply because it would be incredibly hard to rock up and win at the mountain on debut and I think it’s better to be realistic about that.

“It doesn’t really matter how much time you do on the sim, it will be different when we head out onto the track for the first time. It’s definitely an effective way to start my 2025-26 season but at the same time will be super daunting flying over the top of the mountain for the first time.”

It’ll be a busy few days for the youngster with practice on Thursday, qualifying and the first race on Friday then one race on Saturday and one race on Sunday.