Picture Tayler
Burke
Rowan Shepherd has
won the 2021 Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship after a
mesmerising final race at the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park,
Taupo.
Shepherd needed to finish second
behind race winner Simon Evans and did exactly that, despite
Evans trying everything he could to force attacks from third
placed Brock Gilchrist and fourth placed Ronan Murphy to try
and push Shepherd back to where he wouldn’t have enough
points to beat Evans to the title.
Shepherd however,
held on in style and took the title by just five points -
his tally of 973 trumping Evans 968 after 15 hugely
competitive races.
Wednesday, 14 April 2021, 1:55 pm
With 12 races down and just three to go, the race
to the 2021 Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship title is still
wide open.
Either current series leader Rowan
Shepherd, early pace setter Ryan Wood or Simon Evans will
leave the Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park on Sunday as the
2021 Championship winner after one of the most closely
fought titles in the category s seven year
history.
It s the first time the circuit has been used
in the championship for four seasons and almost nobody in
the field has experience of a Toyota 86 at the
track.
Shepherd sits on 779 points heading to Taupo,
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Sunday, 14 February 2021, 6:11 pm
A huge weekend for Rowan Shepherd brought two
more wins on Sunday at the third round of the Best Bars
Toyota 86 Championship and propelled him into the points
lead ahead of Simon Evans and Ryan Wood.
Rowan
Shepherd (leading) now heads the Best Bars Toyota 86
Championship after three race wins at Manfeild Circuit Chris
Amon.
Picture Bruce
Jenkins
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. Unfortunately
a post-race penalty of two seconds for exceeding track
limits in the battle for the lead dropped him to second in
Picture Bruce
Jenkins
Shepherd and pole
position holder Ryan Wood fought for the lead away from the
lights, but contact on the infield sent Wood into a spin and
to the back of the field. Shepherd carried on with some
minor rear bodywork wounds but couldn’t hold off wily
championship leader Simon Evans, who avoided the drama and
took the lead at the end of the first lap, with Shepherd and
Ronan Murphy in hot pursuit.
The race developed
quickly into three distinct battles. The battle for the lead
with Evans, Shepherd and Murphy, the battle for fourth,
fifth and sixth involving a fast-starting Christina