Brock Gilchrist steps up to Toyota 86 Championship

| Photographer Credit: Bruce Jenkins

Another young man in a hurry is joining the ranks of racers in the Toyota 86 Championship this weekend.
Brock Gilchrist, 14, has risen out of karting into the popular BMW E30 series, and after just a handful of rounds has brought together a deal to contest the final two rounds of the current Toyota 86 Championship.

Taught to drive at just 2.5 years of age by Dad Brent, Gilchrist was racing quad bikes by age four and karting at age seven.

He has completed four race meetings in the BMW series – his first races with a roof over his head. Now he joins the Toyota 86 Championship as it rolls into Circuit Chris Amon at Manfeild near Feilding for round five of six.

Brock Gilchrist has no doubts about where he wants to go: the Australian Supercar Championship.

His arrival brings to 18 the number of drivers who have contested all or some rounds of the Championship.

Consistency is everything at this point in the Championship. With just three races this weekend and a final three at Hampton Downs in March, drivers must stay out of trouble, make sure they score points in every race – yet they must also race as hard as they can, knowing every other driver is going to do the same. The smallest mistake could cost them the title.

New arrival Gilchrist will be watching and learning.

Mark Baker has been working in automotive PR and communications for more than two decades. For much longer than that he has been a motorsport journalist, photographer and competitor, witness to most of the most exciting and significant motorsport trends and events of the mid-late 20th Century. His earliest memories of motorsport were trips to races at Ohakea in the early 1960s, and later of annual summer pilgrimages to watch Shellsport racers and Mini 7s at Bay Park and winter sorties into forests around Kawerau and Rotorua to see the likes of Russell Brookes, Ari Vatanen and Mike Marshall ply their trade in group 4 Escorts. Together with Murray Taylor and TV producer/director Dave Hedge he has been responsible for helping to build New Zealand’s unique Toyota Racing Series into a globally recognized event brand under category managers Barrie and Louise Thomlinson. Now working for a variety of automotive and mainstream commercial clients, Mark has a unique perspective on recent motor racing history and the future career paths of our best and brightest young racers.

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