Chris White, 17, was awarded $54,000 from the Tony Quinn Foundation to go towards his racing.
He will compete in the Toyota GR86 Championship, starting next month at the Taupō International Motorsport Park, alongside best mate Blake Knowles – who left Boys’ High at the end of last year to work full-time.
Knowles was awarded $50,000 and a new Toyota GR86 by the Wolfbrook Motorsport Foundation to compete in the series.
White, who won the Mazda Racing Championship earlier this year, won his scholarship after a successful shootout with three other young drivers from around New Zealand.
“We presented a whole lot of media stuff to a board, and then a lot of driving, (which was) the important part, but then the next step was proving that you’ve got promotional skills and you can actually promote your brand,” he said.
“It’s pretty special, we’ve been best friends since preschool and always raced alongside each other in go-karting and then now to be competing in (GR)86.
“It was really unexpected and I’m pretty excited to race alongside him.”
White was looking forward to the series getting under way.
“I’ve been watching it for about six years now, never thought about competing in it.
“When I found out we’re doing it, I was pretty rapt, and since then I’ve just been itching to do it.”
“(Hopefully) just have a major success in the Toyota series and then if that goes well hopefully we can jump the ditch to Aussie and race Porsches and then progress to V8 supercars,” White said.
“I’ve always wished that’s where I could go, but now I think there’s actually a possibility that we could get there, so we’ll see what happens in the future.
“Hopefully we can do it.”
