Photo: Nick CassidyBob McMurray writes from the Toyota Racing Series, Hampton Downs, round 4....
Cooler today, overcast with showers forecast but looking good for the weekend with a much brighter forecast published today.
Two drivers late for the briefing this morning, Nick Cassidy and Mitch Evans. The headmaster was not amused and had words with them.
He’s a pussycat though.
I am staying in a motel in Pukekohe, conveniently situated right next to the main north / south railway line.
I can confirm that the trains are running regularly and start early and finish late.
The rest of the team are staying in a motel in Pokeno and report that there is no Wi-Fi to be had in the place.
Funny how that particular tool, that only a few short years ago hadn’t actually been invented, is now such a vital tool to business and one that the media in general cannot operate without.
Immediacy is the name of the game and without it you are behind the game.
In front of our particular game at the moment is Nick Cassidy but judging by the test sessions held so far he is going to have plenty of opposition this weekend.
Session 1 for the day started a little late but was without red flags all the way through.
None...nada...nothing...remarkable.
The drivers were quickly on the pace with some choosing to start on new rubber and others bringing it in as the session wore on.
Apart from one broken front wing element on Lucas Auer’s car, there appeared to be no damage to any of the cars at all.
Therefore, not much to report, apart from the fact that the top ten drivers were lapping all well below the current lap record for the TRS series.
That record stands at 1:01.846.
The fastest driver in session 1 was Raffaele Marciello on 1:00.389. Pretty damn quick!
The others were not far behind and all in the 1:00 bracket with Evans at .600, Serralles at .859, Berthon .872, King .911, Cassidy .916, Bonifacio .938, Hill .951, Auer .986 and Leitch .988.
The next five drivers on the list are also under the lap record time,
Of course Mitch’s lap record still stands until somebody (maybe Mitch himself) breaks it during a race situation.
It’s all shaping up for a very competitive run in to the New Zealand Grand Prix next weekend at Manfeild.
In between the test session the TRS two seater has been doing some laps with various guests in the back seat.
One was NZ Herald writer Jacqui Madelin so it will be interesting to see what she really thought about it when she tells the tale in the Herald.
Also hanging on to the driver, Sam MacNeil, for a couple of laps was a lady named Jo Clegg who actually won the ride in a competition we ran on the ‘On Track Off Track’ show on Radio Sport and Ben Goodale who bid for the ride at the recent ‘Mens Health Trust evening celebrating Kenny Smith’.
Sam was lapping in about 1:08.00 seconds so not too bad I think.
Two other overseas visitors to the series have also arrived in the last day or so as well.
First was Francesco Pon, the ‘Technical Head of the Ferrari Driver Academy’ based in Maranello.
He is here to cast his eye over FDA member Raffaele Marciello and lend any help he can.
You may note that Raffaele was fastest in the first session today.
The second visitor is Jonathan Green, the internationally known TV commentator for the TRS series 2012.
The TV commentary couldn’t possibly go any faster than it does now with his infectiously exciting voice.
Session 2 started at 14.25 – ish and was a little bit back to normal with the red flags.
Two in the session, well, three really, with the first being caused by Chris Vlok backing his car, unintentionally and pretty forcefully into the wall on the exit of turn 1.
He banged his head and knee a bit and was a bit sore but was cleared as being fit to race with no problems by his father.
His dad is a renowned doctor so that’s OK then!
Marciello’s car was towed in with an engine problem after stopping on track and causing the second red flag and the session ended under a red flag with Mitch Evans being towed back to the pits, also with an engine issue.
The times were very competitive once again but this time Serralles came out on top from Bonifacio, van Asseldonk, Evans, Hill, Cassidy, King, Berthon, Auer and Suranovich.
Nothing else to report so far today but a lot of work going on in the garages and a fair amount of head scratching going on between some of the engineers and drivers.
The New Zealand Motor Cup is a ‘proper’ trophy and has enormous history and carries massive prestige enhanced by the famous gallery of names of the previous winners etched into it.
From 1954 with Stan Jones through names like Moss, Surtees, Bira and so many more I would need a book to tell you all about them.
Tell you what....check it out on the interwebnet thing, it’s a fascinating read.
More later.........
Bob
