To escape the winter in Europe, the second half of the THRacing Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (TTM) 2025 takes place in Oceania. The teams had polished their cars up to send them across the globe following Round 3, only for each and every one of them to immediately get dented and bent in the unforgiving concrete-walled maze that is the street circuit in the harbor of New Zealand's capital Wellington. Time to airfreight a couple of new chassis to Australia ahead of the next round, huh?
Based on the real-world weather forecast on site, the weather was mild with a stiff breeze of 30-43 km/h. Qualifying was held in overcast conditions, and while the warmup of the race saw spots of sun in windy conditions, the cloud cover filled up again ahead of the race, setting the stage for a very dramatic race that was brought to the viewers superbly by Microlin's amazing live commentary. The evening before, our commentator had gained first-hand experience at Wellington when he celebrated his debut in our second-tier touring car championship TCTM with a spectacular Sierra RS500 dressed in a livery based on a VW Golf GTI from the 1989 British Production Saloon Championship.
Round 4 finally ended the streak of three-manufacturer podiums, with both of the Simruina Racing Team III drivers Marc Orós (#45) and Ayrton Titos (#46) sharing the podium with rapid newcomer NeckR888 (#92) in the Nissan Skyline of Team Impul, followed by two Alfa Romeos and a BMW to see four manufacturers in the Top 6. With a grid of only 27 cars, it was the smallest round of the season so far.
Qualifying: Orós Cashes in the ABS and Agility Trump Cards
Doubling down on his strong form that saw him barely missing out on his maiden win after his first pole position at the previous round, Marc Orós made full use of his car's trump cards for Wellington: low weight, instant engine response, and the pioneering Mercedes/Bosch 4-Channel Racing ABS. The Spaniard delivered back-to-back pole positions in the #45 Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evolution II of Simruina Racing Team III and achieved a 1:24.263 and a margin of 0.35 seconds at Wellington.
Alongside the Spanish 190E driver was a familiar sight at the front, but only at first glance - because the orange BMW M3 of Linder Rennsport in 2nd place was not that of Kuba Palubicki, who was absent for this round. It was actually the other Linder M3: the #19 piloted by Jacopo Hrynecko, who scored his personal best qualifying result of the season by far after setting a 1:24.623. He outqualified his Czech compatriot Adam Celárek, best of the heavyweights in the #17 Holden Commodore of Side Heart Motorsports, by a quarter second. The second row was completed by Ayrton Titos (#46 Simruina III Mercedes) with a 1:25.013.
Attila Diner in the #27 Jolly Club Alfa Romeo rounded out the Top 5, another two tenths adrift. Jayden HW would have been the top-qualified Nissan if he hadn't withdrawn from the race, which promoted the #16 Holden of Adam Keefe to 6th on the starting grid. The #12 Alfa Romeo of Nat Stevenson and the blue Calsonic Team Impul Nissan of TTM debutant NeckR888 (#92) occupied Row 4, and the Top 10 were completed by Boby Vakuinof's Alfa Romeo (#36) and Alfie Bevan's BMW M3 (#99).
Last round's winner HappyKojot ended up in 16th place, highlighting the huge troubles faced by the Ford crowd at Wellington. Akira scored an acceptable qualifying result with 14th place but most importantly, the Viasa Racing driver (#91) finally lost Lone Wolf status with the debut of a second Audi driven by Daan Vanderstukken (#93) from Belgium, who started in 24th place for BTP Motorsports. Also new on the grid was Panagiotis Mazarakis (#35 BMW M3), who went into his TTM debut from 20th place.
The race
Utter Carnage at the Start
In windy overcast conditions with mild temperatures, sunglasses were unnecessary to witness the standing start from a very tightly-cramped starting grid. It would turn out to be one of the worst first laps in the history of not only the TTM championship but even the THRacing community as a whole.
Only 25 of 27 cars participated in the race after unannounced absences by both Maju (#39) and pitman (#4), the latter of whom didn't make it home in time to start in the race as it later turned out. The winner of the previous round, HappyKojot (#727), immediately lost an entire lap because his wheelbase wasn't recognized by Assetto Corsa anymore.
On track, the first kick in the nuts was received by Valentin Knechtel. With a good start from 12th on the grid, the Jolly Club driver immediately contested 10th place in the middle of a 3-wide with the black and yellow #1 BMW of Jaroslav Cerny on the outside, and the #36 Alfa Romeo of Boby Vakuinof on the inside. In the first curve at the pit exit, Cerny sharply turned into Knechtel's front left wheel, sending the German spinning out in a cloud of smoke where miraculously, he was only hit by the #13 Ford of Florian Masse before resuming the race in 24th place. It was only a calm prelude for what was to come at the curve with the first braking zone: the Northern Hairpin directly after that.
While Knechtel's Alfa Romeo laid a smokescreen over the lower half of the field after Cerny rammed him into a spin, Adam Keefe in the #16 Holden was caught off-guard by the braking point of Ayrton Titos #46 at turn 1, and bumped into the rear of the Spanish Mercedes driver who managed to save the car.
Then it got messy.
That did not last long through, because TTM debutant NeckR888 in the #92 Calsonic Team Impul Skyline hit the Spaniard in the Northern Hairpin, causing him to spin sideways directly in front of Nat Stevenson (#12), Alfie Bevan (#99), and Adam Keefe (#16).This momentarily caused a 3-wide roadblock that Attila Diner (#27) got around on the outside, but only because Jordi Sumoy (#55) braked to avoid spinning out the German. The three lanes of cars on the inside kept pushing Titos's Mercedes forward while the Spaniard tried to get going.As soon as Adam Keefe saw a clear track in front of himself, he floored it, but the front left corner of Ayrton Titos's Mercedes caught his Holden's right rear corner while the Spaniard transitioned to rolling tyres again.That sent the big Holden spinning to the right, deflecting Diner's Alfa Romeo head-on into the guardrail while the Holden spun back to the left and into both the #46 Mercedes and the #1 BMW.Mauled by the cars behind after rebounding from the guardrail, the Jolly Club Alfa Romeo of Attila Diner flipped over. The BMW of Jaroslav Cerny received plenty of dents, while Ayrton Titos struggled to stay in control of his Mercedes after having been hit by Keefe's Holden. [Photo: Florian Masse]Nat Stevenson looked like he was going to emerge from the chaos as the best-placed Alfa Romeo driver, but then he decided to go to the left to avoid having to back off behind Ayrton Titos who was skidding towards the right while regaining control over his car. That directly put him into the path of the red BMW driven by Alfie Bevan, who avoided the flipping Alfa of Attila Diner, and it didn't end well for him.In the Audi of Viasa Racing, Akira emerged from the chaos in 8th place, with Boby Vakuinof in the best-placed Alfa Romeo behind him. Three of the four fastest Alfa Romeos had fallen victim to the first two corners - an utterly catastrophic start of the race for the Italian brand. Nat Stevenson struggled to get his car from Reverse to 1st gear on his BDH H1 Bazooka shifter after the spin, costing him a lot of time and sending him back to far behind the end of the field.For the first time this season, Jacopo Hrynecko in the #19 Linder Rennsport M3 took the lead. At Town Hall Corner, he was nearly torpedoed by his Czech compatriot Adam Celárek (#17) when the Holden driver had to take the emergency exit after outbraking himself on cold carbon brakes in an attempt to defend 2nd place against the Mercedes of Marc Orós. While the Holden driver resumed the race in 10th place, P3 was inherited by newcomer NeckR888 in the blue Nissan.For the first time this season, Akira was not the only Audi driver anymore. In the new #93 Audi of BTP Motorsports, Daan Vanderstukken from Belgium got through the early chaos and ran 13th when he turned onto Herd Street on the opening lap.Also new on the grid: Panagiotis Mazarakis from Greece in the #35 BMW, pictured here going into the Overseas Passenger Terminal Sweeper in 20th position ahead of Christoph Mües. While at Wellington, he used the colours of Alexander Burgstaller's 1992 DTM car, the number 35 BMW will have new colours next time.Unbelievable views on the start/finish straight at the end of lap 1: the invisible car of the TV client was stuck on the starting grid, where its spawn position was right on the racing line. While leading a TTM race for the first time, the orange Linder BMW of Jacopo Hrynecko crashed into it at full speed, and Marc Orós (#45) was unable to take evasive action and got caught up in the same accident. Huge apologies from the THRacing Organizing Team and the TV crew for this terrible accident.While the Spanish Mercedes driver was immediately able to get his car going again and only lost two positions, Hrynecko got the short end of the stick. His demolished BMW came to rest facing the opposite direction in the middle of the track. The Czech driver wisely pulled over to the pit wall to minimize the chance of being hit by passing traffic. This sent him back to 23rd place: what a disaster for the Linder Rennsport driver, mere seconds after having led a TTM race for the first time.Adam Keefe then smacked his Holden into the concrete wall exiting turn 1 and pulled off the track to retire his car. The cloud of smoke in the background was produced by Daan Vanderstukken, who entered the Northern Hairpin with a reverse-entry inertia drift that would have made Gigi Galli proud.Vanderstukken then bumped into the passenger side of Rolf Biber's #59 Alfa Romeo, while D Weller (#6) bumped the blue Ford of Florian Masse (#13) into a spin. In the background, Christoph Mües (#42 Mercedes) spun towards the hairpin sideways after having been squeezed into the Turn 1 exit wall by Attila Diner (#27 Alfa Romeo).The situation at the hairpin allowed Valentin Knechtel to get alongside D Weller going through the tight chicane leading onto Jervois Quay. Their first contact saw Knechtel pushed further left than expected, so he backed off a bit and widened his line to avoid the left-hander's apex guardrail.Their cars made contact again at the 2nd apex of the chicane, sending Weller's BMW sideways.The result was this roadblock. Only Max Solmyr's Holden got through without a scratch, but the next five drivers drove into either Weller or each other, with Mazarakis's BMW being the luckiest of them. While Attila Diner (#26) and Christoph Mües (#42) managed to get away reasonably quickly as well, this proved to be quite a costly experience for the other three drivers. D Weller (#6), Florian Masse (#13) and Nico Bonnefon (#25) were still maneuvering to get their cars facing in the right direction when Jacopo Hrynecko (#19) arrived on the scene and barreled into the guardrail while attempting to avoid Bonnefon's BMW.Only during that roadblock, HappyKojot finally managed to get underway an entire lap behind the last running driver. It was a race to forget for the Polish driver who won the previous round, but he carried on to the checkered flag and salvaged what he could.The chaotic events on the opening lap paved the way for a sensation. Not only did a rookie end up in the lead on debut, but also a car that had struggled to even get into the Top 10 all season so far. The leading Nissan Skyline 2000 GTS-R was the brandnew #92 entry of Team Impul in the iconic Calsonic livery, piloted by Touge specialist NeckR888 who felt right at home on the tight and bumpy city circuit in the harbor of New Zealand's capital.Trailing roughly 200 meters behind the leader, a battle train of seven cars embarked on the hunt. Reigning champion Jaroslav Cerny is pictured accelerating out of Town Hall Corner with Marc Orós on his tail. Behind him, another sensation appeared in the shape of Jordi Sumoy in the Side Heart Pepsi BMW #55, holding a season-best 4th place ahead of Ayrton Titos, Boby Vakuinof, Akira, and Adam Celárek. But as the laps went on, the Spanish BMW driver lost position after position.
Lapses Meet Uncompromising Concrete Walls
After Celárek aggressively muscled his way past Akira, Boby Vakuinof, and Ayrton Titos, he was in a position to join the battle for 2nd and aggressively sent the Holden down the inside of Marc Orós the Northern Hairpin on Lap 8 with locking tyres, nearly hitting the 2nd-placed M3 of Jaroslav Cerny.Orós managed to stay alongside Celárek all the way through the tight chicane that leads onto Jervois Quay.The Holden outaccelerated the Mercedes as they sped side by side through the dangerous lane change chicane on Jervois Quay, but this situation had proven particularly useful for reigning TTM champion Jaroslav Cerny who gained some valuable breathing room.Sensationally, the newcomer in the Nissan continued to lead the way. NeckR888 now had a seven second margin over Jaroslav Cerny. It wouldn't take long, through, for both Adam Celárek and Marc Orós to close the gap to Cerny again.Small mistake with massive consequences: Marc Orós hit the right-hand apex entering the Dunlop Bridge, which sent him into the guardrail of the first left-hand apex at a very steep angle. He lost two positions to his team mate Ayrton Titos and to Boby Vakuinof and resumed the race in 6th place.The battle for 2nd now really heated up. Jaroslav Cerny is pictured at Town Hall Corner after having defended 2nd place on the brakes around the outside against his Czech compatriot Celárek's Holden.The battle between the two Czechs escalated into a no-holds-barred brawl, exemplified in this contact when Cerny tried to squeeze Celárek further to the right in the braking zone for the Northern Hairpin.The collision sent Celárek's Holden into the outside wall and allowed Cerny to open up a few car lengths worth of a gap again. The duel between the two Czech drivers cost them plenty of time. In this picture from the Northern Hairpin on lap 14, the leading blue Nissan of NeckR888 is already about to turn onto Jervois Quay. Ayrton Titos is pictured gradually catching up to the two combatants on the lower podium positions. Behind him, Boby Vakuinof fired his Alfa Romeo into the outside wall of Turn 1 after colliding with the apex, handing 5th place back to Marc Orós.One lap later, the two Simruina Racing Team III Mercedes drivers swapped positions, and then the battle for 2nd place boiled over at the exit of the Barnett Street Chicane.Celárek exited the chicane glued to Cerny's rear bumper and swiftly began to accelerate down the inside of Cerny on the curved straightaway of Toop Walk, immediately establishing an overlap between his front bumper and the rear bumper of Cerny, who wasn't willing to let that happen.By applying the Precision Immobilization Technique to himself, Cerny unsettled his lightweight BMW using the front bumper of his Czech compatriot's Holden after having squeezed him all the way to the inside guardrail...... and spun out under the footbridge that spans the Nissan Mobil Chicane, handing 2nd place to Celárek.Ayrton Titos then crashed into Cerny's BMW at the end of his spin, because the Spanish Mercedes driver had tried to gain time while driving through a cloud of tyre smoke. Naughty.This crash sent the reigning champion back to 4th place, but Boby Vakuinof promptly relegated him to 5th and proceeded to pull away from him: another crushing blow to Cerny's title defense.Jaroslav Cerny then got under attack by Alfie Bevan, who in turn was shadowed by the blue Suntory Boss Nissan of FMG. Moments after this picture, the British BMW driver hit the exit apex of Town Hall Corner, allowing Cerny to escape again.That put him squarely into the sights of not only FMG, but also Attila Diner who had silently fought his way back up to 8th place after having been flipped over and caught up in a roadblock at the start of the race. This trio went on to keep each other busy for multiple laps, allowing another early victim to catch up gradually: Jacopo Hrynecko.Adam Celárek's joy about second place was short-lived, when he outbraked himself and hit the wall at Town Hall Corner, allowing Marc Orós to get alongside and then outbrake him into the next corner.After chasing Orós for several laps, Celárek arrived in the Northern Hairpin with opposite lock from a presumably accidental inertia drift, while the Spanish Mercedes driver had taken a very wide entrance.The Holden driver lit up the rear wheels and drifted into the left rear wheel of Orós's 190E.That nudged the Mercedes sideways enough for both cars to be side by side in the short straight to the tight chicane that led onto Jervois Quay, and Orós was able to defend the position.Another lap, another bold move at the Northern Hairpin: Celárek braked straight to the apex and got the car stopped in time, while Orós had taken the usual wide approach for ABS-equipped cars and managed to stay ahead.And then it all fell apart for the aggressive Holden driver. Just over 7 minutes after the fateful collision with the reigning champion's BMW, Adam Celárek clipped the concrete wall at the apex of the unnamed right-hand curve between Nissan Chicane and the Dunlop Bridge. He crashed hard into the outside wall and spun. Not only did Ayrton Titos pass him for third place, his car had also sustained massive damage to the steering, which prompted an immediate repair stop. In the end, the Holden driver barely recovered into the Top 10 by the time the checkered flag dropped - a huge blow to the title ambitions of the driver who had missed out on the drivers championship by a hair's width last season.
Top 5 Showdown
By lap 32, Jacopo Hrynecko (#19) had arrived behind Attila Diner (#27), FMG (#122), Alfie Bevan (#99) and reigning champion Jaroslav Cerny (#1), forming a 5-way battle for 5th place.Up front, NeckR888 incredibly still continued to write a fairytale story for Nissan by occupying the lead, but Marc Orós in the #45 Mercedes rapidly melted down his lead. With every lap that passed, the black Mercedes became bigger in Neck's rear view mirror. Behind them, Ayrton Titos and Boby Vakuinof were nowhere to be seen, as Orós's advantage was so large that they hadn't even reached Town Hall Corner yet at the time of this picture from the next braking zone, leading onto Chaffers Street. By the end of the next lap, Orós was glued to the Nissan's rear bumper.Moments later, Attila Diner successfully executed a bold divebomb against FMG's ABS-enhanced Nissan to capture 7th place at the Town Hall Corner.The 5-way fight became a 4-way fight when Jacopo Hrynecko then hit the apex wall of the Town Hall Corner's exit, which deflected his BMW hard into the outside wall.Next up, Alfie Bevan tried to take 5th out of Jaroslav Cerny's hands around the outside at the Northern Hairpin, but the reigning champion prevailed.At Town Hall Corner, Bevan had to defend his own position against the Alfa Romeo of Attila Diner, who had launched an attack on the outside on Jervois Quay. This picture repeated itself in the next braking zone upon arrival at the junction leading onto Chaffers Street.After Diner had managed to stay alongside Bevan on Chaffers Street, the two made contact while turning onto Herd Street and were still side by side going into the Overseas Passenger Terminal Sweeper.Bevan did everything in his power to defend 6th place against Attila Diner but then he overcooked it on the brakes at the Barnett Street Chicane and opened up the steering, sending him into the stack of concrete blocks disguised as tyres.The impact had shattered his windscreen and suddenly decelerated his car, triggering a spin that saw him get hit twice: first by the Nissan of FMG who continued unharmed, and then by the lapped Mercedes of Christoph Mües, who spun out as a result of the accident that cost Bevan three positions and left him facing the wrong direction.Attila Diner had escaped Alfie Bevan's demise by a hair's width. Undeterred, he began to attack Jaroslav Cerny with a bold move that saw his Alfa Romeo getting sideways on the brakes around the outside against the ABS-equipped BMW M3 at Town Hall Corner. Even though that allowed him to enter Cable Street alongside the BMW, it wasn't enough to capture the position - for now.However, it allowed both FMG and Jacopo Hrynecko to close the gap again, forming this four-car train of cars accelerating onto Herd Street.Following an error by Jaroslav Cerny exiting the Dunlop Bridge, Attila Diner briefly took 5th place on the start/finish straight, but the reigning champion immediately struck back and recaptured the position at the Northern Hairpin.When Jacopo Hrynecko barged into the side of FMG at Northern Hairpin, he briefly advanced to 7th place but immediately redressed the position to the Nissan driver.Jaroslav Cerny and Attila Diner accelerated out of Town Hall Corner and onto Cable Street yet again, this time after they lapped the Audi of Daan Vanderstukken following a spin by the Belgian TTM Rookie. Cerny would again manage to defend 5th in the next braking zone.Another error by Cerny at the exit of the Dunlop Bridge allowed Diner to repeat his attack on the start/finish straight, and this time he was determined to make it stick: the Jolly Club driver kept the inside covered at the Northern Hairpin and gracefully rotated the car while locking up the inside front tyre. At last, the Alfa Romeo driver had cracked the reigning champion and advanced to 5th.Drama up front: when BMW backmarker Nico Bonnefon (#25) hit the concrete wall at the exist of the Barnett Street Chicane after ignoring blue flags for a bit, the leader inevitably bumped into the back of him. However, NeckR888 then immediately got a push from behind when Marc Orós rear-ended him, allowing the Nissan driver to pass the lapped BMW on Toop Walk. Bonnefon decided to stay ahead of the Spanish Mercedes until the start/finish straight, opening a two second gap between the leaders that Orós managed to recover again.While they managed to lap the Alfa Romeo of Rolf Biber swiftly, the next lapped car caused quite a few headaches. Samu0332 in the #56 BMW of Side Heart Pepsi ignored blue flags and defended against the leaders for an entire lap, even leading to contact between them at one point.Side by side for the lead with just over two laps to go: NeckR888 defended the inside against Marc Orós going into the Overseas Passenger Terminal Sweeper.No prisoners were taken by Neck when he encountered Nico Bonnefon yet again at the Northern Hairpin. The Nissan driver sent his car down the inside and barged his way past the lapped BMW. That allowed Marc Orós to not only get past the French BMW backmarker as well, but even attack the Nissan by getting alongside.Having braked late for the tight chicane that takes drivers onto Jervois Quay, Neck got sideways at the exit and Marc Orós partially managed to get alongside.In the flat-out chicane to switch to the other side of Jervois Quay, the front bumper of Marc Orós still overlapped the rear bumper of NeckR888, who would have had to provide sufficient room for survival to Orós. However, he did not turn far enough to the right after the first guardrail had ended.As a result, contact occurred between their cars, sending Marc Orós into the start of the second apex's guardrail nearly head-on. The Nissan driver continued without redressing the position. Following a protest, Race Control awarded a 20 second time penalty and two licence points to NeckR888 for causing a collision through an unsafe defensive maneuver.Marc Orós was lucky to be able to continue after the accident, and carried the car around the track for the remaining 1.5 laps with suspension damage.NeckR888 tainted a sensation on the penultimate lap. Although he crossed the line first, the post-race time penalty of 20 seconds demoted him to third place.Marc Orós had overcome several setbacks and fightbacks by the time he attacked NeckR888 on the penultimate lap, and had to carry his severely damaged car across the line afterwards. Although he inherited first place as a result of the penalty against NeckR888, his maiden TTM win is fully deserved.When his team mate proved to be faster, Ayrton Titos perfected the role of the water carrier and secured a double podium for Simruina Racing Team III. Although he crossed the line in 3rd place, the time penalty against NeckR888 promoted him to 2nd place - a key result for the Spaniards in the fight for the Team Championship.Although Boby Vakuinof managed to defend 4th place on the final lap, Attila Diner's long fight back into the Top 5 deserves a honourable mention. Behind the two Alfa Romeos, the top 10 were completed by Jaroslav Cerny, FMG, Jacopo Hrynecko, Alfie Bevan, and Adam Celárek.
BMW finally had a strong presence in the Top 10, but the three aces of the Bavarians did not end up in the planned upper half. Mercedes only got two cars into the Top 10 but put them on top of the podium. Alfa Romeo recovered from a catastrophic start that eliminated three of their fastest four drivers to bring two cars into the Top 5. For the first time ever, Nissan brought two cars into the Top 10. Holden had a huge match ball at Wellington but fumbled, barely bringing one car into the tail end of the Top 10.
For Ford, the race was an utter disaster from the start. Not only did their cars not work well at this track, the championship leader did not even make it out of the pits for the first 1.5 laps of the race. With the best Ford in 13th place, it was a race to forget for the Blue Oval. Audi started strong but dropped off even harder - after the opening lap, they had one car in the Top 10 and the other in the Top 15. After losing their best car to driver errors and technical gremlins, their rookie only salvaged 21st place, two laps behind the winner.
Official Top 5 Results
Marc Orós (Mercedes 190E Evo II) — 42 laps — best 01:26.032
Ayrton Titos (Mercedes 190E Evo II) — +3.1s — best 01:26.859
NeckR888 (Nissan Skyline 2000 GTS-R) — +9.5s — best 01:26.623
Attila Diner (Alfa Romeo 75 S1) — +11.5s — best 01:25.779
What it means for the championship
The season uses the familiar 40‑37‑34‑31‑30‑29… points system with one drop result per driver in the drivers and teams championships, but not for the manufacturer championship that only mirrors the points achieved by each brand's top scorer of the race:
#45 Marc Orós (108 points)
#727 HappyKojot (102 points)
#20 Kuba Palubicki (102 points)
#26 Valentin Knechtel (98 points)
#27 Attila Diner (96 points)
#1 Jaroslav Cerny (91 points)
#46 Ayrton Titos (90 points)
#17 Adam Celárek (89 points)
#36 Boby Vakuinof (84 points)
#16 Adam Keefe (73 points)
In the teams championship, Simruina Racing Team III took the lead with 198 points, followed closely by Jolly Club (194) and Side Heart Motorsports (191). Asahi Motorsport (164) and Linder Rennsport (162) complete the Top 5 but they trail the top 3 by almost 30 points.
The manufacturers championship after Round 4 has a new leader in Mercedes-Benz, but both Alfa Romeo and BMW remain hot on their heels. Holden and Ford suffer the fallout of their dismal outings in Wellington, allowing the top 3 to open up a gap of more than 10 points.
The concrete-wall-lined city circuit in the harbor of New Zealand's capital proved to be a meat grinder - but unlike the Guia Circuit in Macau, it provided multiple passing opportunities and plenty of intense action. For the teams, however, it was an expensive affair, with half of the participating teams having to rebuild their cars on new chassis ahead of the next round on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst. FMG proved the value of doing one's best to stay out of trouble by advancing 9 places, while Jacopo Hrynecko and Adam Celárek can't be happy about finishing 6 and 7 places behind their respective qualifying results. The strongest recovery drive by far was delivered by Attila Diner, who incredibly regained nearly 20 positions after having been flipped over and finished in 5th place, directly behind the rear bumper of the 4th-placed driver.
Adam Keefe and Adam Celárek threw away match balls for Holden. Akira had a strong start for Audi but ended up retiring from the race after his wheelbase disconnected from the PC. Nat Stevenson was caught up in a pileup and ended up retiring from the race due to his struggles with his shifter.
Next up: Mount Panorama Circuit: the spiritual home of motorsport in Australia will be hotly-contested, blending iconic straights with uncompromising concrete walls over top of the mountain. Who will remain level headed enough to conquer the mountain and their competitors?
