Kiwi teenagers Nick Cassidy and Damon Leitch dominated a field including 15 overseas drivers at Timaru’s second round of the Toyota Racing Series today.
Aucklander Cassidy, 17, won today’s feature race, the Timaru Herald Trophy, to back up his victory in yesterday’s opening heat. With a third in today’s final race, he now leads the series by 11 points from 18-year-old Leitch, from Invercargill.
Leitch ran away with the final race, which started with the six top drivers in reverse order on the grid.
The feature race was run in very demanding conditions – the track was wet at the start, but it dried out a lot during the 20 laps as the sun started shining. Almost all started on wet-weather tyres, which deteriorated badly on the dryer track.
Brazilian Bruno Bonifacio led early, ahead of Dutch driver Hannes van Asseldonk, Cassidy, Leitch, Josh Hill (UK) and Felix Serralles (Puerto Rico. Bonifacio dropped back to third, Cassidy closed in on van Asseldonk, passed him just before half-distance and pulled away to a big lead.
It was a finely judged race – Cassidy had to balance raw speed against the need to preserve his tyres. He said van Asseldonk had gone too fast too early and thereby ruined his tyres.
“Qualifying didn’t go so well but we were strong in the races,” said Cassidy, who wants very much to win the series to bolster his claim for a good international drive later this year.
“Things are going pretty well but there’s a long way to go yet.”
Leitch also went better in the races than he had in qualifying.
“I got a great start, pushed for first few laps and then the kept the gap,” he said of his breakthrough victory. “I’m very happy to get the first race win off my back.”
Serralles, fast and consistent, was the top international driver and third for the round with placings of fourth, second and 10th. Aucklander Jono Lester was fourth equal for the round with British driver Jordan King, just ahead of Hill who is the son of former ld champion Damon Hill.
In the BNT New Zealand V8s, series leader Angus Fogg from Auckland was totally dominant with two wins and a second in the reverse-grid race. He won the 20-lap feature race by nearly 23 seconds – a margin almost unheard-of in this category.
Australian V8 Supercar driver Jason Bargwanna was second for the round while Hamilton’s Simon Richards scored his first V8 victory with a good drive in the reverse-grid race.
“It’s been five years in the making,” Richards said. “I got the right break and then it wasn’t a struggle to do it.”
These three all drove Fords.
Results - 2012 Toyota Racing Series, Round 2, Timaru International Motor Raceway
Qualifying
1 Hannes van Asseldonk 57.45
2 Bruno Bonifacio 57.703
3 Nick Cassidy 57.834
4 Damon Leitch 57.887
5 Felix Serralles 57.895
6 Josh Hill 57.908
7 Lucas Auer 57.942
8 Jordan King 58.124
9 Raffaele Marciello 58.227
10 Jono Lester 58.302
11 Dmitry Suranovich 58.388
12 Nathanael Berthon 58.468
13 Victor Sendin 58.472
14 Chris Vlok 58.552
15 Shahaan Engineer 58.762
16 Tanart Sathienthirakul 58.855
17 Melvin Moh 59.077
18 Michela Cerruti 59.624
19 Sheban Siddiqi 60.699
Race 1 (12 laps)
1 Nick Cassidy
2 Damon Leitch
3 Josh Hill
4 Felix Serralles
5 Hannes van Asseldonk
6 Lucas Auer
7 Jordan King
8 Jono Lester
9 Nathanael Berthon
10 Raffaele Marciello
11 Shahaan Engineer
12 Dmitry Suranovich
13 Victor Sendin
14 Melvin Moh
15 Tanart Sathienthirakul
16 Chris Vlok
17 Michela Cerruti
18 Sheban Siddiqi
Not classified (75% = 9 Laps)
19 Bruno Bonifacio
Race 2 (20 laps) Timaru Herald Trophy
1 Nick Cassidy
2 Felix Serralles
3 Jordan King
4 Jono Lester
5 Damon Leitch
6 Lucas Auer
7 Dmitry Suranovich
8 Josh Hill
9 Victor Sendin
10 Raffaele Marciello
11 Melvin Moh
12 Bruno Bonifacio
13 Shahaan Engineer
14 Hannes van Asseldonk
15 Michela Cerruti
16 Nathanael Berthon
17 Sheban Siddiqi
Not classified (75% = 15 Laps)
DNF Chris Vlok
DNS Tanart Sathienthirakul
Race 3( 12 laps)
1 Damon Leitch
2 Dmitry Suranovich
3 Nick Cassidy
4 Jono Lester
5 Raffaele Marciello
6 Jordan King
7 Melvin Moh
8 Nathanael Berthon
9 Victor Sendin
10 Felix Serralles
11 Bruno Bonifacio
12 Chris Vlok
13 Tanart Sathienthirakul
14 Lucas Auer
15 Michela Cerruti
16 Shahaan Engineer
17 Sheban Siddiqi
18 Josh Hill
19 Hannes van Asseldonk
Points
1 Nick Cassidy Auckland, NZ 383
2 Damon Leitch Invercargill, NZ 372
3 Felix Serralles Puerto Rico 295
4 Josh Hill United Kingdom 261
5 Hannes van Asseldonk Netherlands 237
6 Jono Lester Auckland, NZ 237
7 Dmitry Suranovich Russia 230
8 Nathanael Berthon France 218
9 Victor Sendin France 217
10 Bruno Bonifacio Brazil 196
11 Jordan King United Kingdom 180
12 Raffaele Marciello Switzerland 164
13 Michela Cerruti Italy 154
14 Melvin Moh Malaysia 153
15 Shahaan Engineer India 151
16 Tanart Sathienthirakul Thailand 138
17 Lukas Auer Austria 138
18 Chris Vlok Darfield, NZ 136
19 Sheban Siddiqi United Kingdom 96
