Five Way Title Fight Comes To A Head This Weekend At New Zealand Grand Prix
Five drivers head for Palmerston North this week with a shot at the 2014 Toyota Racing Series title and for the first
time in the ten year history of the series it could fall to an international driver.
New Zealanders have had a lock-down on the title for nine years of intense single-seater competition. During that time
the shape of the TRS championship has evolved from one dominated by New Zealand entries to one where international
entries edge toward 20 in number while there are four New Zealanders: Damon Leitch, his brother Brendon, Michael Scott
and James Munro. Thirteen countries are represented in the 2014 TRS field.
Going into the final three races of the championship at Manfeild this weekend, Singaporean Andrew Tang leads UK driver
Jann Mardenborough by just seven points, 610 to 603. The leading two are graduates of the 2012 championship, giving them
some familiarity with the intense competition they will encounter in the three races of the coming weekend. Both have
majored on consistency, making sure of points at every opportunity. Tang has two wins and has stood on the podium seven
times in 12 races. Mardenborough has three wins and has stood on the podium a total of five times.
Russian Egor Orudzhev, who has won three races and been on the podium seven times. He is third for the series on 586.
Many are tipping the young Russian for a stellar career, pointing to his spectacularly fast form and daring style behind
the wheel through the four rounds to date.
The New Zealander in the midst of the championship battle is Damon Leitch, currently fourth on 581 points. He has four
podium finishes so far.
Former championship leader Martin Rump recovered from nightmare results in the first two races of the NZ Motor Cup
weekend and won the NZ Motor Cup feature race, becoming the second Estonian racer to do so – the first being his driver
coach this year, Sten Pentus. Rump is fifth in the standings on 551 and has won two races, racking up five podiums in
total. He is also the leading rookie, and reset the lap record for TRS at Hampton Downs.
With four intense weeks of tough competition behind them, the Toyota Racing Series drivers are honed, fast and fit. The
championship arrives at its defining moment with three races this weekend, culminating in the 35-lap New Zealand Grand
Prix on Sunday afternoon.
Over the preceding four rounds, New Zealand and international drivers have done battle for race victories and valuable
points in the championship, with six different drivers taking race wins in conditions that ranged from the
near-horizontal sleet of a windswept Teretonga to the blustery winds and baking 28 degree heat of Timaru, the rain and
sun of Cromwell and blistering 32 degree days at Hampton Downs.
The latter round, held last weekend, brought exciting news for new championship leader Tang. The young Singaporean
driver has been racing this year with the prospect of missing the final round due to a call-up to carry out his
obligations under Singapore’s compulsory national service laws. He was to have reported for 22 months of service in the
Singapore Police.
Intensive lobbying for a deferment that went all the way to the Prime Minister’s office paid off at the weekend, when he
was given the news he could defer his commitment and race all the way to the Grand Prix.
Tang, 19, told Singapore’s Straits Times he was “literally jumping for joy” in the Neale Motorsport pit garage when he
received the news from his father, SK, and mother Anita.
“Now the championship lead comes as the ultimate result for us, and I can focus clearly on this coming weekend and the
last three races of the championship,” he said.
Many of the young internationals racing this weekend go on to northern hemisphere season commitments on a career path
that could take them all the way to Formula One, a career in sports cars or one of a number of key roles within the
major teams in Europe, the UK and USA. Likewise, the top Kiwis are focussed on that ultimate goal. Each and every one
would love to add the New Zealand Grand Prix to their cv – and almost all would likewise proudly take the outright
championship title away with them.
New Zealand Grand Prix weekend race times for the premier category TRS single-seaters are 3.00pm Saturday, 11.00am
Sunday and the feature race, the New Zealand Grand Prix, at 4.00 pm Sunday.
Kiwi Racers Up Against Young Internationals At Grand Prix
New Zealand’s rising race drivers go up against a record field of young international racers this weekend as the Toyota
Racing Series reaches its finale at the 58th New Zealand Grand Prix.
In a field of 23 drivers entered for the series, there are 19 internationals and four New Zealanders. Now in its tenth
year, Toyota Racing Series is New Zealand’s premier race category, giving rising local racers a chance to experience
current race technology and attracting the best young racers from overseas to hone their skills on New Zealand’s most
challenging race tracks.
TRS Category Manager Barrie Thomlinson says a new, high intensity format of five back-to-back race weekends has been a
key factor in bringing the international drivers to New Zealand.
The ‘five-in-five’ format is a response to feedback from local and overseas drivers, managers and teams. It’s a
motorsport pressure-cooker with drivers in their race cars testing, qualifying and racing for 20 out of 30 days, fifteen
races making up the championship which culminates this weekend with the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild near
Palmerston North.
“The new format has had a measurable positive effect on the number of international drivers coming here for TRS. We are
now ‘on the radar’ in Europe and the USA, attracting increasing numbers of drivers, teams and engineers from overseas,”
Thomlinson says.
The series uses a carbon-fibre composite race car chassis produced by Tatuus in Italy that features 1.8-litre Toyota
engines, six-speed race-bred transmissions, Michelin ‘slick’ racing tyres and a full aerodynamic formula-car design. The
TRS car has similar handling, braking and performance to the global Formula Three category.
Drivers get experience working alongside their engineers and mechanics in proper race teams and alongside other aspiring
racers. Supported by their teams, they are able to work with professional race engineers on their car’s set-up and see
how to use the performance data available from the cars’ onboard electronics.
ENDS