Rowan Shepherd left Hampton Downs with three race wins. Picture Bruce Jenkins.
Reigning champion Rowan Shepherd has ignited his defence of the Toyota 86 Championship title with a third win for the
weekend at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park.
Starting off pole position with a dry track but rain in the air, the Christchurch racer had to play second fiddle to
Simon Evans initially. After six laps of hard duelling he eventually found his way by and never looked back, cruising
away to a two second win to secure the round and slash Evans lead by 20 points at the halfway point of the championship.
"It’s a dream weekend for us," said the delighted Christchurch racer on the podium. "We had a pretty average start to
the championship but we've been gathering pace and this will put us right back in contention and that's awesome.
"The car was faultless and was awesome all weekend so it basically came down to me not to make a mistake. I just worked
hard to stay focussed and let the car do the work. Anything can happen in this championship so we'll just keep doing
what we are doing and look forward to the next round at Pukekohe Park."
Evans tried his best to retain second and mitigate the points loss to Shepherd for the round, but slowed in the second
half and with two laps to go fell prey first to a flying Dion Pitt and then Heart of Racing star rookie Hugo Allan.
After the race a disappointed Simon reported braking issues on the Giltrap Racing TR86 but he still managed to come home
fourth on the road behind Pitt in second and Allan in third - his second podium of the weekend.
The news was to get worse for the championship leader, however. In a post-race twist both Pitt and Allan were penalised
for making contact with each other and each was given two second penalties each. Evans himself was given a two second
penalty for a jumped start. This dropped the three of them behind Justin Allen who was elevated to second on the
results.
The battle at the front of the field and further back for the remaining top ten places proved to be as good as any of
recent seasons in the TR86 category with multiple changes of position and door to door racing for the entire 12 lap
race.
Behind the fight for the lead in the early laps, a separate battle for third was also raging and further back still
there was another almighty tussle for the remaining places in the top ten with Matthew McCutcheon, Brock Gilchrist, John
Penny and Allen putting on a fine show for the limited fans at the track and the live stream viewers.
At the flag it was the NAPA Autoparts car of Allen that prevailed to win the battle and it proved well worthwhile when
it became a third place finish following the penalties.2022 TOYOTA 86 CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 3 – HAMPTON DOWNS – RACE 4Pos#NAMETEAM11Rowan SHEPHERDAction Motorsport299Justin ALLENInternational Motorsport35Dion PITTAction Motorsport423Hugo ALLANThe Heart of Racing54Simon EVANSGiltrap Group Motorsport610Brock GILCHRISTCareVets Racing796Matthew MCCUTCHEONAction Motorsport884Marco GILTRAPGiltrap Group Motorsport922John PENNYAction Motorsport1015Clay OSBORNEJames Marshall Motorsport1172Zac STICHBURYMackenzie Motorsport1255Christina ORR WESTDayle ITM138Mark MALLARDMark Mallard Racing14222Todd FOSTERInternational Motorsport1511Will MORTONiMac Race Engineering1691Ronan MURPHYAction Motorsport1714Fynn OSBORNEJames Marshall Motorsport189Sam COTTERILLInternational Motorsport1925Chelsea HERBERTThe Heart of Racing