Third of the season for Bethune – championship too close to call

Josh Bethune delivered a clinical victory in the feature race at the penultimate round of the Bridgestone GR86 Championship and keeps his championship hopes alive, as the gap between series leader Hayden Bakkerus and Hugo Allan was reduced to just 11 points.

Bethune passed team mate Cooper Barnes early in the race and sped away to his third win of the season. Cooper joined him on the podium after his best weekend of the season while Justin Allen completed a very solid weekend with another podium finish in third. It was a great end to another impressive weekend for Josh.

“We have had a lot of podiums but this one feels good,” he said afterwards. “The cars are a rocket and are very good. Honestly Cooper and I have had a great year and he has pushed me along, it’s great to be at the front.”

The real story of the race though, was the fine drive by Hugo Allan to fourth. With championship leader Hayden Bakkerus finishing ninth, Allan cut his advantage to 11 points with only the final round at next month’s Supercars event at Taupo International Motorsport Park remaining. Race winner Bethune kept himself in firm contention too, though he still has a decent hill to climb to overturn the top two.

With the grid being formed from the fastest times recorded in the previous two races over the weekend, it was the man in form Josh Bethune who sat on pole position, ahead of Australian Cooper Barnes. Race 1 winner Justin Allen and Race 2 winner Chris White completed the second row of the grid.

Hugo Allan, meanwhile, sat fifth on the grid and significantly ahead of championship leader Hayden Bakkerus, who’s two fastest race laps of the weekend were good for 11th on the feature race grid.

As the lights went out, it was Barnes who made the best getaway and he had two car lengths lead as the field swept through the first turn and on around the opening lap. As they completed the first lap it was Barnes ahead of Bethune, with Justin Allen a few car lengths back in third and with a raging pack behind him.

Further back Bakkerus had made up a couple of places, while Hugo Allan was holding down fifth further up the field but it was the Right Karts by M2 Competition duo of Barnes and Bethune who had control of the race, the two circulating nose to tail and two seconds ahead of Allen after just four laps. Zach Blincoe, with a hastily repaired car following race two, was another flying along , getting himself up to eleventh from 22nd on the grid inside five laps.

Bethune made a clean pass for the lead on his team mate crossing the line to start lap six but attention was on Hugo Allan further down the order as he engaged with White in a great battle. At the halfway mark of the 14 lap feature he was on White’s bumper applying a huge amount of pressure on the morning’s race winner. A great pass around the turn three and four sequence gained Allan the advantage and he was through to fourth inside the next hundred metres or so, further cutting into Bakkerus’s lead as the championship protagonist remained stuck – but safe – in ninth.

Up front Bethune had built a lead of almost a second ahead of Barnes and was fully in control of the race, revelling in the superior speed of his GR86. He was untouchable and took the chequered flag more than a second ahead.

Barnes finished three seconds ahead of Allen, with Hugo Allan next up, then top rookie White in fifth ahead of Jett Murray, who had a strong race on his way to sixth. Mac Templeton finished seventh in his first weekend of the championship, while Bakkerus eventually came home eighth ahead of Arthur Broughan and the remarkable Blincoe, who made the top ten after a stellar drive from the back.

2024-2025 Bridgestone GR86 Championship – Round 5 Hampton Downs Race 3