White extends pace advantage ahead of qualifying at Taupo

Championship leader Chris White backed up his first session pace with a lap time in the second session that was fastest by more than six tenths of a second – a huge margin in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship.

Brighter and warmer conditions than the first session earlier on Friday saw times fall.  Not only that, but there was plenty more activity in pitlane as teams sought to find optimum settings and tyre pressures.

With qualifying in the afternoon – a format unique to the championship’s Supercars appearance – most drivers were hunting for a fast time to get their eye in. Qualifying in the Bridgestone GR86 Championship is always pivotal when both the best, and second-best lap times count, so getting fast times in early is always at a premium at the Supercars event.

Ajay Giddy was again second fastest, while Josh Bethune and Hugo Allan were there again in the top four, albeit with Josh third and Hugo fourth for this session. They were only fractions behind Giddy but both were left scratching their heads with White’s early pace in the championship deciding final weekend.

Arthur Broughan made a step forward on pace moving up the field to fifth for this session, while Zach Blincoe matched his first session performance with sixth. Mac Templeton made a good step forward to complete the session in seventh place overall, ahead of another to show decent pace, Nathan Grammer. Harry Townshend and Cooper Barnes rounded out the leading ten.

It was a morning to forget for Rookie champion Lee Zeltwanger, down the order in both practice sessions, and a second session to forget for Justin Allen, who only completed one lap after an annoying water leak put paid to much of his track time. Both would be looking to improve for qualifying.

There’s not long to wait for that qualifying session as the 20 minutes gets underway at 1.15pm – the fastest time each driver records will give them their grid time for Sunday’s feature race, while their second best will give them their starting position for Saturday’s first race.

2025-2026 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 6 Taupo – Practice 2