CHAMPION Australian driver Gary Hall Jr is well placed to break a 38-year drought and win World Drivers’ Championships in New Zealand.
Hall Jr led early and now sits a close second, just nine points behind Canadian star James MacDonald, as crunch time approaches with just five of the 20 heats in the series remaining.
The next four heats will be held at Winton in NZ’s deep south tomorrow (Sunday) with the final heat fittingly being run at Tuesday’s iconic NZ Cup meeting at Addington.
“It’s hard for me to line-up the form. Some of my drives have pretty good numerical form, so here’s hoping,” Hall Jr said.
“I got off to a flier, but it’s been a battle through the middle heats. Thankfully I got some good points at Addington (last night) to stay in touch, but James (MacDonald) did better than most though he would, so he’s going to be hard to catch.”
The last Australian to win the series was Victorian great Ted Demmler way back in 1987 in Scandinavia. The only other Aussie winner was Keith Addison in 1975.
This is the first time Hall Jr, who has driven almost 4200 winners, has represented Australia in the series.
“It’s been a real career highlight with a great group of people. I’d love to finish in the top three at least.”
MacDonald is chasing his second title, having won it in front of his home crowd in Canada in 2017.
“It’s been great to get a win at all three venues so far (Kaikoura, Cambridge and Addington) and I’m clinging to a slight lead,” he said.
“It’s been a fantastic series to be part of and we’re getting to the pointy end of it now with just five races to go.
“There’s a bunch of people nipping at my heels and I’m just trying to hang on.”
Blair Orange will need a huge finish in the last five heats to give NZ a record seventh win in the series. The most recent was the great Dexter Dunn 10 years ago. He is in fourth position, 23 points behind MacDonald.
POINTS TALLY: 130 James MacDonald (Canada), 121 Gary Hall Jr (Aust), 111 Mats Djuse (Sweden), 107 Blair Orange (NZ), 91 Michael Nimczyk (Germany), Pierre Vercruysse (France), 83 Giampaolo Minnucci (Italy), 83 Jaap Van Rijn (Netherlands), 80 Brett Beckwith (USA), 74 Santtu Raitala (Finland).
