Driving a Peter Brock/John Cleland Holden Commodore VP, Lawson started the race on pole position but swapped the lead back and forth with the two Skylines of Richards and Stuart Rogers.
What followed was an intense battle where Lawson and Richards swapped the lead lap after lap, as Rogers in his Nissan R32 Skyline tribute was shuffled back through the pack.
Lawson fought to try and retake the lead from Richards, but was forced to settle for second, finishing just 0.1s behind in a photo finish.
Walkinshaw TWG Racing co-owner Scott O’Donnell channelled his driver Ryan Wood, carving through the top 10 to finish in third position in the Whittaker’s Peanut Slab Ford Sierra formerly campaigned by Greg Murphy.
Murphy, meanwhile, was right behind O’Donnell in a Super Touring Honda Accord in fourth, 0.02s ahead of Kayne Scott rounding out the top five in an ex-Matt Neal Super Touring Nissan Primera.
The John Fairhall Historic Touring Cars return for the first of two more races on Sunday at 9:35am NZST (7:35am AEST).
Rodin Cars New Zealand Formula Ford Challenge
Marco Manson led home Arthur Broughan and Maxim Kirwan to take the first win of the weekend on Friday afternoon.
The reigning champion relinquished the lead at the race start to Kirwan, dropping to third position on the opening lap as Broughan also battled through.
What followed was an intense battle for the lead, broken up by a single safety car period.
Lincoln Taylor and Dylan Petch came together at Turn 8 in the opening laps, with wheel-to-wheel contact sending them both off the road.
The pair were able to recover and continue just as the yellow flag was shown.
Following a short safety car period, the action continued when Thomas Flynn’s left rear wheel parted company coming to the restart.
In the laps following the restart, the top three battled for the lead, swapping positions almost lap by lap.
Manson re-took the race lead just before Australian championship leader Wickham ground to a halt with smoke pouring from his car.
Race 1 finished under the control of the safety car as a result.
Broughan took the win in Race 2 on Saturday, but was forced to work for it.
Jake Bryant and Sebastian Eskandari took the fight to the leader for the duration of the race, while Manson was hampered at the race start.
Manson went backwards off the start and slipped down to third, before being collected by Taylor at Turn 4 on the opening lap.
As Taylor and Manson filed into the pit lane, followed by Kirwan with an unrelated problem, the race for the lead heated up lap by lap.
Broughan led home Bryant by half a second while Eskandari fell further behind to round out the podium.
Formula Ford returns for Race 3 on Sunday at 9:05am NZST (7:05am AEST).
Summerset GT New Zealand Championship
Tom Alexander put on a clinic in the opening GT New Zealand Championship race on Friday, leading from lights to flag to take the win by 8.6s.
The race was the first chance Alexander had to drive the Porsche, with regular driver Nigel Cromie having qualified the car before leaving the track for personal commitments.
It was not all smooth sailing for the leader, as he found his way off the road exiting Turn 3 in the opening laps, but he was able to retain the lead.
Alexander led home Regan Scoullar and Steve Brooks in the opening race, as Rick Armstrong fell back to fourth after showing speed early in the top two.
Sam Fillmore rounded out the top five ahead of Paul Kelly, who started and finished sixth despite spinning on Lap 1.
William Exton won the GT4 battle from Australian young gun Lachlan Evennett in seventh and eighth.
Come Saturday morning, Cromie picked up exactly where Alexander left off, leading Race 2 from lights to flag.
Armstrong came home in second and looked to be catching the leader during the middle portion of the race, but Cromie hit back with a series of fast laps to keep the veteran behind.
Brooks’ run to third position was not without casualty, as he made contact with Kelly in the opening laps, sending Kelly to the back of the field in consecutive races.
Kelly recovered to sixth, but was once again forced to rue what could’ve been with strong car speed.
Evennett dominated the GT4 class coming home in seventh position unchallenged, while the battle was on for second in class in the closing minutes.
Exton came home second after wearing down Matt Day for several laps, however Greg Murphy was caught up as collateral damage in Exton’s charge forwards, the pair coming together in the early laps, resulting in a Murphy spin.
Scoullar hit back in Race 3 to take his first win of the season, capitalising on a bad start for Cromie.
Armstrong got the best start of the lead group and shot up to second, while Cromie was shuffled back to fourth.
While Armstrong battled to hold the charging pack behind, Scoullar built up a lead of over nine seconds in the opening laps, despite being on older tyres than the other front runners.
Cromie worked his way back through to second and set about chasing down the leader, bringing the gap down to just 1.07s at the finish.
Armstrong held on to take third ahead of Fillmore and Brooks.
Murphy took victory in the GT4 class coming home in seventh outright while the other cars battled hard at the rear of the field.
The GT New Zealand Championship returns for a 40-minute finale on Sunday at 10:50am NZST (8:50am AEST).
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