Photo: Damon Leitch leadsBob McMurray writes.....
Cold today. 8c on the way to the track with a forecast of 12c for the day.
I bet these international drivers are real glad they came down for the summer eh!?
At the track now and blue sky above...ooops, black cloud, rain, blue sky, cloud, rain, wind, more wind, blue sky, rain, rain..etc., etc.
That is the day's forecast so just better get on with it.
A few of the drivers went to the Invercargill karting track after the day.s doings last evening and being as competitive as they are there are a few sore backs and rib cages around today. No real problems just the usual unfamiliar seats.
A lot of fun was had though.
Before I go any further I should explain the qualifying procedure for the three races of the weekend.
Race 1 was a straight qualifying with the fastest car on pole and slowest last.
For race 2 the grid is made up of the average of the fastest two lap times each driver achieved in qualifying with the fastest at the front etc.
In race 3 the grid is the finishing order of race 2 with the top six finishers in that race in reverse order. ie. the winner of race 2 starts race 3 in 6th position, 2nd starts 5th etc.. 7th position and down start in the position they finished race 2.
Got it??
So race 2 of the weekend sees Lucas Auer on pole with King, Hill, van Asseldonk, Lester, Cassidy, Bonifacio and Marciello filling the top eight places.
Our resident track commentator, Eric Thompson, has spent the last couple of weeks or so practicing the names of some of the drivers and has got it all pretty well taped now.
Hill, Lester, Evans now being no problem to him.
It was obviously going to be a challenge saying “van Asseldonk fighting with Sathienthirakul and Suranovich” in a hurry but having gone through the names with the drivers he found that they were happy with shortened versions.
Sathienthirakul likes to be known by his nickname of “Top” or first name of “Tanart” for example and Lucas Auer (pronounced as in “hour”) is nicknamed 'Luggi'.
We are just waiting for Eric to say the Hill and Evans names in the traditional British accent and sounding like 'ill' and 'Hevans' dropping and adding aitches.
The Giles team worked until well after midnight getting the car of Lucas Auer back in shape, new engine and all, with all looking good for today.
After yesterdays little incident in race 1 between Hill, King and van Asseldonk, the stewards assessed King with a penalty for causing an accident. His M2 Competition team decided to protest that penalty but after considering all the angles, the cost and what the penalty actually was (just 3 penalty points on his licence) they decided not to proceed.
It was all a progression of circumstances really and as close to a „racing incident. as one could get so best to put it behind him and get on with the job.
By the way the weather (sorry to keep banging on about it) has just delivered us a cold snap, or colder should I say, and dumped a whole bunch of hailstones in our laps.
The plague of toads is next apparently and Noah is still banging away.
In fact as race 2 was underway (what there was of it) two huge funnel clouds appeared and nearly became tornadoes but didn.t quite touch down.
So to race 2, 'The Spirt of a Nation Cup' and more of the same actually.
The good news is that the drivers all made it around turn 1 (they approach turn 1 at 235kph in the dry and 232kph in the wet and safely negotiate the turn at 160kph dry and 130kph wet) and in fact the entire first lap was without real incident! It went a bit downhill from there on.
Jono Lester went wide and into the gravel, entirely unassisted, at turn 2 and that now familiar sight of the safety car appeared again.
Jono's car was cleared away, safety car back in the pits and racing again...for all of 1 lap until Sheban Siddiqi slid off...safety car again..safety car back in pits again...for another 2 laps until Auer, all alone and leading the race from van Asseldonk, slid wide after getting a wheel off the dry line and onto the wet....Lexus time again....Lexus back in pits and racing time again.....for another four laps this time until King.s car slowed rapidly – causing the car of Hill to touch the rear of King.s car and break his front wing – and stopped at the side of the track with oil pump failure. A legacy of going over the kerbs in race 1 apparently.
Lexus time yet again while the car was got into a safe place and Hill contnuied with a very dodgy looking front wing which he came into the pits to have replaced just as a major downpour hit the track again.
The Lexus continued to lead the race on a track that was half bone dry and half flooded.
Suranovich also made a break for the pits to have his suspension looked at and the Hill team decided to fit wet weather tyres to his car in an effort to second guess the weather and get a jump on the other teams.
Didn't work unfortunately as the race director decided the conditions were too bad to continue and called the race with four laps to go and Hill still in the pits.
So the Lexus safety car wins yet again!
The conditions are awful, the TRS is new to the majority of the drivers, the track is new to the majority of the drivers and they are all trying to make their way in international racing, but the driving standards leave a bit to be desired to be honest.
They are all here to get experience and to further their careers in the best way possible, by actually RACING against other driver and not just endlessly and mindlessly testing.
They will not achieve their objectives by following the safety car for lap after lap.
I know they will settle down, as they always, do but the flag fest we have had to this point in the weekend is fairly unacceptable to their teams, the public and more importantly to themselves.
They are all good drivers, damn good drivers, with more skills than I can ever have but they need to get more racecraft about them and then the points will come.
This series, as I have said before, is the most competitive I have ever seen in the TRS and with that desire to be the best sometimes comes complete with a certain impetuousness. The next races on the calendar will, I am certain, be some of the best real cut and thrust racing we have ever seen in this country.
Let's see what race 3 brings.....actually it's looking dangerously dry at this point so the Lexus driver may not get a hat trick!
OK, hat trick it was for the Lexus.
As soon as I said it may be dry the heavens opened and we reaped the whirlwind, almost literally actually and it was the start of a wholly unsatisfactory race 3.
The weather was awful, truly awful, a bit of dodgy driving – again, red flags, a restart, red and chequered flags, cars spinning off, bumping into each other, conditions that, in my opinion, should not have permitted a restart to the red flagged race as they were no better than when the race was originally stopped, massive confusion as to who actually won, a grumpy driver or two, more hail, more rain and very, very few racing laps completed.
In fact over the three races of the weekend and an expected forty eight laps I think we actually achieved approximately ten real racing laps.
As always you can read the race report and results elsewhere www.toyotaracingseries.co.nz but the end round up was race 3 winner van Asseldonk, second Nick Cassidy and third Damon Leitch with the overall lead in the championship with 181 points going to Leitch, second with173 points Cassidy and third with 150 points van Asseldonk.
A disappointing start to the series and I guess it was all down to the weather.
Noah still banging away and I am cold wet and hungry.
Roll on Timaru next weekend. I know it's going to be good.
More later
Bob
See also
- Bob's Blog: Second day of TRS practice
