THREE-WAY FIGHT FOR BEST BARS TOYOTA 86 TITLE
A huge weekend for Rowan Shepherd – with wins in all three races – at the third round of the Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship at Feilding’s Circuit Manfeild Chris Amon in mid-February propelled the Hawke’s Bay ace into the points lead of the series as well as a three-way fight for the 2021 title with established tin-top star Simon Evans from Auckland and teenage kart-turned-car racer Ryan Wood from Wellington.
Sunday started well for Wood as he got his own title challenge in the championship back on track with a crucial win on the road. However, a post-race penalty of two seconds for exceeding track limits in the battle for the lead dropped him to second in the results behind Shepherd – who therefore took his second straight win.
He then made it three-out-of-three in the final class race of the weekend which he started from pole.
Wood got his nose in front on lap six but Shepherd fought back to take the lead in a great move at the first turn which saw him go right, then left and then underneath Wood forcing the latter to go wide.
Evans tried to make the most of the situation too, but the three emerged with Shepherd first, Wood second and Evans third.
Behind the superb tussle for first, second and third, Brock Gilchrist had a strong drive to fourth, from Ronan Murphy, Christina Orr-West and Marco Giltrap.
Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship – Points after Round 3
1. Rowan Shepherd 600
2. Simon Evans 577
3. Ryan Wood 560
4. Brock Gilchrist 517
5. Marco Giltrap 418
6. Ronan Murphy 395