🇳🇿 Chris Pither

Chris Pither, a New Zealand professional racing driver, competes at semi-professional level with a Racer Rating of 3,804. This places him among drivers who win occasionally in pro-am and one-make classes and run mid-pack among full professionals; he beats semi-professionals comfortably but typically lacks the consistency to contend at the sharp end of a fully professional field. His career on record spans four seasons in the Supercars Championship from 2019 to 2022, during which he accumulated 70 starts for Coca-Cola Racing and PremiAir Racing without recording a win or podium finish.[1]

Pither's Supercars tenure reveals a substantial gap between his level and the series' front-runners. He competed regularly against elite professionals and some of the strongest drivers in the world; his head-to-head records against Shane Van Gisbergen and Cameron Waters, both rated above 6,100 and former Supercars champions, show him finishing ahead just 6 and 5 times respectively across 65 shared races. Against the Gold-graded Mark Winterbottom and Lee Holdsworth he fared similarly, with 9 and 8 victories from 65 and 64 races. Isolated results exist where Pither outran much stronger competitors; he finished ahead of Scott McLaughlin, the 2019 and 2020 Supercars champion, once, and ahead of Brodie Kostecki nine times. However, these instances do not constitute a pattern and sit within records showing him well beaten overall. His average finish of P18.7 across classified races underscores that he was a lower-midfield runner in a championship of full-time professionals.[2]

Pither's success in New Zealand domestic racing prior to Supercars, including multiple karting titles and national V8 Ute championships, built his reputation before the full-time category. His final Supercars season ended in 2022 at P35 in the championship. He is now retired from racing on record.