Brock Gilchrist will aim to follow in the footsteps of Matt Payne, Ryan Wood, Callum Hedge, and Zac Stitchbury after being the latest young driver to win the prestigious Porsche New Zealand scholarship.
Gilchrist’s prize will be an entry in next year’s Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge series with Earl Bamber Motorsport and support from Porsche New Zealand.
During the season just gone, the Porsche New Zealand protégé Marco Giltrap took out Australia’s second-tier Porsche series comfortably and is set to make the next step to Carrera Cup in 2024 alongside scholarship winner Stitchbury.
Beating out 45 rival drivers aged 16-21, 19-year-old Gilchrist has competed in the New Zealand Toyota 86 Championship for the past four years culminating in title victory leading to an opportunity to race a Toyota Supra GT4 at the Nurburgring.
Gilchrist was also part of a Supercars evaluation day with Triple Eight Race Engineering.
As a bonus, Gilchrist also received the inaugural Giltrap Motorsport Junior Scholarship where he will compete in the GT New Zealand Championship just prior to his season in Australia.
“To be selected as a Team Porsche New Zealand driver is a dream come true,” Gilchrist said. “I have been working towards this for the past year, and it feels amazing to have achieved my goal. I am absolutely thrilled and excited for the season next year.”
Team Owner Earl Bamber is eager to watch Gilchrist’s campaign next year.
“We are super excited to have Brock on board,” said Bamber.
“He has shown his pedigree coming out of the Toyota 86 Championship where many of our successful scholarship recipients like Callum Hedge started their careers. As a New Zealand champion, we have had our eye on him for some time.
“We are excited to see him progress from the Giltrap scholarship that he is doing in New Zealand into Sprint Challenge Australia with us in 2024.”
General Manager of Porsche New Zealand Greg Clarke is excited to provide another opportunity to a young driver.
“Congratulations to Brock Gilchrist for taking out the Team Porsche New Zealand scholarship for 2024. The Sprint Challenge series is the perfect introduction to racing Porsche’s internationally,” said Clarke.
“We hope to see him progress through the Porsche pyramid as we have seen with Zac Stichbury and Callum Hedge this year.”
Team Porsche New Zealand has provided a start to many future stars including Payne, who capped off his rookie Supercars Championship season with victory in Adelaide and has since been announced as the recipient of a new, long-term deal with Grove Racing.
Wood was a close runner up in the 2022 Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge title, but has become a Super2 winner and will make the step up to the main game partnering Chaz Mostert at Walkinshaw Andretti United.
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