The Trans-Tasman contingent of Gavin Yortt and Craig Innes put on a fantastic display at Phillip Island last weekend to show they are a forced to be reckoned with in the Australian Hertz MINI Challenge – delivered by Pizza Capers.

Innes, driving the Pizza Capers UberStar car, put in a fantastic performance to finish top-5 for the event despite having never driven the R56 version of the MINI Challenge car before.

With family on-hand to experience all the thrills and spills of Phillip Island racing, the Kiwi drove tremendously, improving throughout the weekend to finish the final race on Sunday in fourth, and wrap-up a fine weekend on debut in the series.

Yortt finished a strong seventh for the round after three consistent efforts over the weekend. With the reverse-grid system in place for race 2 the Hawkes Bay native started from P1 on the grid but unfortunately a slightly over-ambitious entry to a tight corner on lap 1 saw him run wide and slip back to finish ninth for the race.

The Squawking Magpie Wines driver and series regular remains fifth in the championship standings but his Phillip Island efforts have seen him close the gap to fourth-placed Sean Carter. Yortt now lies just 34.5 points adrift of fourth – less than one race point’s total.

Innes is now set to report back to New Zealand where his fellow NZ MINI Challenge competitors have been showing huge interest in the Australian version of the series which is proving to be one of the most competitive of all its global siblings.

This is yet another huge boost to the Australian MINI Challenge series which has been proactively engaging the international market after current championship front-runners Chris Alajajian and Paul Stokell contested a round of the Spanish series for finishing one-two in last year’s season.

Pizza Capers UberStar driver Craig Innes said:“I had an awesome time competing at Phillip Island last weekend. The Australian series is so competitive, the calibre of drivers is top-class and this made for some really exciting, and close racing. The R56 is definitely a little bit quicker than the Supercharged R53 we use back home and I think given some testing prior to this event I definitely could have gone quicker round here. Still I was really impressed by the car and at the times we were able to set, fourth in the last round was a great way to finish the weekend. I’d like to do some more rounds in the Australian series so we’ll definitely be looking to put a deal together to come back and see if we can beat the Aussies at their own game! It was great to have Gavin [Yortt] there to introduce me to everyone and give me some handy pointers over the weekend. It’s an extremely well run series and one I hope I will be able to participate more in.”