The 10th Anniversary Highlands 6 Hour endurance race produced a thriller with the Mercedes AMG GT3 of Paul and Ant Pedersen along with Marco Giltrap, beating home the Wolfbrook Audi R8 GT3 Evo2 of Andrew Waite, Steve Brooks and Bill Riding with NZ Endurance champions Jonny Reid and Sam Fillmore (Audi R8 GT3 Evo2) in third.
The winning margin after six hours of racing at the Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell was just 0.813 seconds with third place a further 4.728 second back. Fourth home was the Brabham BT62 piloted by Shane van Gisbergen/Dwayne and Matthew Carter while the Dayle ITM Lamborghini Huracan GT3 of Brendon Leitch/Christina Orr and Tim Miles finished in fifth.
Initially it was the Damon Leitch/Glenn Smith/John De Veth McLaren 650S that led at the 60-minute mark ahead of Paul Pedersen only to drop down the order with suspension damage near the end of the race.
With only one safety-car intervention, the top teams exchanged the lead over the course of the race with individual fuel, driver and tyre strategies coming into play.
While a rear wheel issue threatened to end the Pedersen/Pedersen/Giltrap charge to the front, dropping them a lap down in the first third of the race, the car was always quick and Carrera Cup star, Marco Giltrap, put in a significant stint to bring the team back in contention for the lead.
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