MEDIA RELEASE
15 NOVEMBER 2023

WHITE JUNIOR LOOKS TO EXTEND CHAMPIONSHIP LEAD

Championship leader Chris White Junior of Prebbleton in Canterbury will head to Taupo International Motorsport Park this weekend looking to extend his early lead in the 2023/2024 Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing Series North Island Championship.

The sixteen-year-old who is contesting, and leading, both the North and South Island Championship’s won two of the three races and finished second in the other to win the opening round at Manfield Circuit Chris Amon last month from reigning National Champion Simon Baker of Wellington and Leo Bult of Auckland.

White Jnr holds a twelve-point lead over Baker and with the Wellington driver absent this weekend he will be looking to extend that lead. Bult will be there however, and will no doubt provide White Jnr with some of his toughest competition while other prominent competitors include Aucklander’s Warren Crowther, Karl Gaines and Nigel Edger.

Many of the series other top contenders will be on the extremely healthy twenty-three car grid with two interesting newcomers adding plenty of interest this weekend. South African Stiaan Kriel has raced with success in his home country in the VW Polo Cup and the South African Endurance Series. He moved to Auckland earlier this year and debuts in the series this weekend. Another Aucklander, Callum Pratt, comes from the OK Cup where, he too, has had some good results.

Two more drivers, James Parker and Leon Davis, return to the fray this weekend after missing Round 1.

This weekend is the opening round of the Super Sprint Motorsport New Zealand Championship and the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing Series North Island Championship competitors have two practice sessions on Friday, the first at 9.50am and the other at 2.35pm before qualifying at 9.52am on Saturday morning. The first race of the round follows that afternoon with a 10-lap contest at 1.51pm before a 12-lap race, featuring a reverse top ten grid from Saturday’s race order, at 9.06am on Sunday morning before the finale, a 10-lap race at 1.39pm that afternoon.

Lindsay Beer
On behalf of the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing Series
021 351 499

For further information – Lindsay Dodd – 0274 383 997

Photograph: Leo Bult of Auckland, currently third in the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing Series North Island Championship, in action at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon last month – please credit Geoff Ridder.

NEXEN TYRE MAZDA RACING SERIES NORTH ISLAND CHAMPIONSHIP
20-22 October 2023:
Round 1 – Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon, Feilding
17-19 November 2024:
Round 2 – Taupo International Motorsport Park, Taupo
9-10 March 2024:
Round 3 Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, North Waikato
5-7 April 2024:
Round 4 Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon, Feilding
18-19 May 2024:
Round 5 Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, North Waikato
TBC
Round 6