White is crowned champion after Taupo weekend shortened

Chris White is the 2025-2026 Bridgestone GR86 Champion – the Christchurch driver coming home second in the second – and final race – of the weekend at Taupo Motorsport Park.

White defended his position in style following wave after wave of attacks from Cooper Barnes, but held on for second on the road behind Cameron Hill. Hill too put in a polished performance to take his first win of the season.

That was enough to see the Neale Motorsport driver – the star of the championship for virtually all of the six rounds – take the title ahead of Zach Blincoe in second and Hugo Allan in third.  

“It feels awesome and the first thing I should do is thank every member of the team for the fantastic job they have done all season. They have put so much time and hard work into the car – it’ll be unforgettable for me,” said the beaming champion after what had been a tough race.

“It was certainly hectic out there, I got a lot of wheelspin at the start and that put me on the back foot. I was comfortably behind Cam at that stage and there was plenty going on behind me as Cooper was sending it every time he got an opportunity so that made it all quite difficult.

“We were really fast on Friday but just missed the window and in qualifying too. It’s also very difficult to pass in these cars and that hampered us in the first race this morning but I am glad we were able to show in that final race the real speed of the car and how we had found it again as a team. Getting the most out of the car, and myself, has been a feature of this season. It’s been a real team effort and I am delighted to be champion.”

With the third race on Sunday cancelled following the decision to close the track due to the pending arrival of Cyclone Vaianu, race two of the weekend – the reverse top eight of the morning’s first race – would therefore be the final race of the season. It was the best news possible for championship leader White, starting on the front row after his seventh place finish in the morning’s race.

Alongside Chris on the front row – with his first pole position of the year – was Right Karts By M2 Competition’s Cameron Hill. His team mates Cooper Barnes and Josh Bethune filled the second row with Arthur Broughan and White’s nearest challenger Zach Blincoe down in sixth. Ajay Giddy would start seventh and Saturday morning race winner Hugo Allan lined up eighth.

Hill made the most of the opportunity and led away from the lights as White was left to fight for second with Barnes, and crucially it was Chris who emerged from the early corners in that second position. Further back Blincoe and Allan were both on the move very quickly and at the end of the first lap were in fifth and sixth respectively.

White survived a hit from Barnes on the second lap as the two slugged it out and on lap three Justin Allen’s race came to an end after he damaged his steering in contact with Harry Townshend.

Out front it was still all nose-to-tail but Hill was hanging on, with White looking ever-more ominous behind as he counted down the laps. At the halfway mark the top five were covered by less than a second with Hill leading White, Barnes, Bethune and Blincoe.

Giddy was leading the next group a second and half further back, effectively preventing Allan from making any championship challenge. With Blincoe ahead, second overall was slipping away too. The reigning champion gave it everything on the final couple of laps, but could do nothing to get through the battle ahead in the time he had left.

At the flag it was Hill, from White, Barnes, Bethune, Blincoe, Giddy, Allan, Broughan, Townshend and Neale Motorsport’s second driver Mac Templeton.

White joins a long list of outstanding drivers to secure the Toyota 86 title and secures the fantastic overall prize of three rounds in the Monochrome GT4 Australia series. Runner up Blincoe wins one round in the series. Both will race the GR Supra GT4 Evo.   

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