Wanganui expat racer Matt Gibson moved up one more spot on the Toyota Finance 86 Championship following the second round in Pukekohe, but he did not have as strong a weekend as in September.
Gibson and the Lightingplus racing team had been looking good at the opening round in Taupo,
with a victory and a third placing in the first two races, before a DNF in the third race knocked them back down to sixth overall.
At the Pukekohe Raceway last weekend, Gibson had finishes of eighth, seventh and fifth to move up to 272 championships points, but still well behind Auckland's Ashley Blewett, who wrestled away the lead from defending champion Jamie McNee of Wellington.
Blewett has 397 points, leading by 14 over McNee, followed by Christchurch's Tom Alexander (339) Auckland's Callum Quin (302) and Gibson.
A hard-fought win in the first race on Saturday gave Blewett the early points advantage, then McNee fought back in the second race on Sunday. In the afternoon feature race Blewett was unstoppable, fighting off McNee's early challenge and then extending his lead out to more than a second.
