Giddy Storms To Race 1 Victory
Antal made the best start in his RaceLab Academy entry and led confidently around the first lap but Ajay had him under pressure quickly and Sabo's lack of race experience showed when he went into Turn One too quickly on the defensive line, went wide on the exit and allowed the front runners through.
Giddy never looked back and raced away from a chasing Harry Townshend and Lee Zeltwanger to score maximum points in the Winter class for drivers who raced in the main Bridgestone GR 86 Championship while Zeltwanger extended his Trophy class lead with another classy podium result.
Townshend put in a solid drive for another second place, resisting pressure from Zeltwanger before edging away by a few car lengths in the final couple of laps.
Race victory however, belonged to Giddy, who remains not only the youngest driver in Toyota 86 racing in NZ, and the youngest to win a race, but also one of the country's youngest and most promising rising stars.
'That's great to get the first win and after Antal made his mistake it was just a question of me not making any either. The car was very good though,' said a delighted Giddy afterwards.
Sabo showed plenty of speed but a similar mistake at turn one later in the race defending his fourth position pushed him back to sixth in the overall results behind CareVets Scholarship racer Corban Sprague and DAYLE ITM driver Matt Day.
Action Motorsport duo Toby Elmiger and Noel Simpson finished seventh and eighth while Nathan Grammer completed the runners in ninth - making it to the chequered flag despite having a slow puncture.
Toyota 86 Trophy Series – Round 2 Taupo Race 1
Grid
Car # Driver name
Trophy / Winter
Team
1 10 Ajay Giddy Winter Mackenzie Motorsport
2 73 Harry Townshend Winter Mackenzie Motorsport
3 22 Lee Zeltwanger Trophy Skunkworks Racing
4 84 Corban Sprague Trophy iMac Engineering
5 100 Matt Day Trophy Dayle ITM Racing
6 92 Antal Sabo Trophy RaceLab Academy
7 74 Toby Elmiger Trophy Action Motorsport
8 88 Noel Simpson Trophy Action Motorsport
9 50 Nathan Grammer Trophy Mackenzie Motorsport
2025 Toyota 86 Trophy Series
Rd1 9-10 May 2025 Hampton Downs - NZIGP Finale
Rd2 21-22 June 2025 Taupo Int. Motorsport Park - Taupo Winter Series
Rd3 5-6 July 2025 Manfeild – Circuit Chris Amon - Manfeild Winter Series
Rd4 26-27 July 2025 Taupo Int. Motorsport Park - Taupo Winter Series
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