A cracking first race in the 2025-2026 Bridgestone GR86 Championship saw Blenheim’s Arthur Broughan take his debut win after front row drivers Chris White and champion Hugo Allan were both given five second penalties for a jumped start.

Broughan raced hard despite a scare on the dummy grid when his car wouldn’t start and he need a push start to get out onto the track for the race.

On track a few moments later, Allan edged forward a millisecond or so before the lights went out and that triggered White to also go. It was certainly marginal but there was movement before the lights went out and race officials immediately penalised Allan and then on-the-road-winner White not long after the race finished.

Once the dust had settled the finishing order was Broughan first, Josh Bethune second and Zach Blincoe third. Broughan was delighted to have taken his first championship win.

“It’s great to take that first win even in these circumstances as we had plenty of speed in the race,” said Broughan afterwards. “We start from pole in the feature race tomorrow afternoon and in the morning we’ll just try and move forward in the reverse top eight race. The focus will be on securing good points from both races.”

Despite admitting to being very rusty after the season lay-off, Bethune was satisfied with second in the race and promised more as the cobwebs continued to clear. “We are always looking to go faster and I definitely know there is a lot more to come from me and the car so we’ll see how we go tomorrow,” he said.

Blincoe made solid progress throughout the race and enjoyed a fine dice throughout with Bethune but he, too, could be content with solid points on the board. “I’ll take that,” said the New Zealand Elite Motorsport Academy graduate.

“We’ve got a bit of work to do but we have pace and I am confident we can build on today.”

Once the penalties had been applied, Ajay Giddy and Winter Trophy Series winner Lee Zeltwanger wound up fourth and fifth while White and Allan ended up sixth and seventh. Behind those two Cooper Barnes showed why he will be a threat this season after storming from the back to eighth place at the chequered flag.

Simon Hunter and Harry Townshend also had busy races peppered with some wild moments but survived well to finish ninth and tenth respectively.