New Zealand GT World Challenge Asia driver Reid Harker has scored sixth in race two at Sportsland Sugo in Japan on Sunday after missing out on points in race one.
Harker was behind the wheel of Earl Bamber Motorsport Giga Racing’s Porsche 911 GT3 R he shares with Indonesian driver Setiawan Santoso for two 60-minute races this weekend. The pair showed their pace early on by topping the practice timetable.
Santoso started race one in 13th and held the position for the most part until the team had to retire the car around the halfway mark.
There was more luck to be had in race two right from the get go though with Harker starting in third place.
After passing the BMW M4 GT3 of Seiji Ara upon the race start, Harker moved up to second but quickly faced competition.
By the end of lap one, Ara managed to reclaim second place.
Harker held onto third after coming under threat from Tomonobu Fujii behind during his stint but as the halfway mark and pit stop window approached, the Kiwi managed to nab second off Ara yet again.
After a driver change, it was then up to Santoso to take it to the end.
However, the opening stages of his stint were met with stiff competition from Satoshi Hoshino and Tomohide Yamaguchi who both managed to get past.
The Indonesian driver pressed on and managed to cross the line in sixth come the end of race two.
It was a bizzare finish for would be winners Takeshi Kimura and Kei Cozzolino of CarGuy Racing though as a tyre issue saw them lose 22 seconds over the last lap.
The two managed to hold onto the lead but misjudged where the finish line was and mistakenly backed off, allowing the D’station Racing and BMW Team Studie teams to pass them. The mistake saw Kimura and Cozzolino finish race two in third.
We next join Harker and the EBM Giga Racing team at Okayama International Circuit on September 23 to 25 for two races.
Main image: Reid Harker Facebook
