Time penalty denies Harrison of an overall GT4 Class win at Super GT NZ finale (UPDATED)

Sunday, March 27, 2022

*****UPDATE

Two days later and an unfortunate update to an earlier post of ours relating to the final round of the Super GT New Zealand from the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park at the weekend.

Having posted on Sunday that Stephen Harrison had secured the GT4 Class title win aboard his Race Lab prepared Aston Martin Racing Vantage GT8R by virtue of finishing two places ahead of title contender Nigel Cromie and taking a GT4 class win in the final race, a five second post-race time penalty for the #78 driver effectively reversed those finishing positions making the McLaren 570s GT4 driver Cromie the declared GT4 Champion instead.

With the result on Sunday always being provisional and something of a surprise for Harrison when interviewed on the podium, the Series do not however clarify as to the reasons why this post race time penalty was served. Harrison now finishes second in the overall GT4 table as a result.

*****ORIGINAL POST

As expected, the inaugural Super GT New Zealand Series went down to the final race of the year from the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park yesterday to determine the overall GT4 Championship winner.

Going into the final round just twelve points behind the class leader, Stephen Harrison and his Race Lab prepared Aston Martin Vantage GT8R was the one most likely to challenge Nigel Cromie and his McLaren 570s although teammate although Shane Helms also has a slight chance with his Vantage GT8R.

A class win for Cromie in the weekends opening sprint race on Saturday was then countered by Harrison with a class win of his own in Sunday’s second sprint race leaving a ‘winner takes all’ prospect for Sunday’s one hour endurance race with now just eight points separating the drivers.

“Game on – there was a fair bit of pressure out there, looks like with the points it’s back to where we started at the start of the weekend, so it’s all on for the final race,” said Harrison.

After another thrilling multi-class race, it came to Harrison needing the racing assistance of his Race Lab teammate Allan Sergeant aboard his Ginetta to finish in between himself and Cromie for the #78 AMR driver to take P2 in class in the final race and take the GT4 Class Championship win by the slightest of margins (still yet to be confirmed by the Series).

If this Championship win is ratified by the Super GT NZ Series, it will be the second for Harrison aboard his bright yellow AMR Vantage GT8R after his class win in the New Zealand South Island Endurance Series last year.