Aucklander Mitch Evans has made a dominant return to the Toyota Racing Series this weekend, but it is fellow Auckland racer Nick Cassidy who gets his name on one of New Zealand motorsport’s most prestigious trophies.
Mitch Evans, race-hardened by a successful season in Europe and fresh from a “boot camp” in Australia with Mark Webber, got a clean drive off pole position to lead Saturday’s 15-lap race from start to finish, crossing the line with a margin of 2.7 seconds over second-placed Hannes van Asseldonk of Holland. He is back in the series this weekend in preparation for his defence of his New Zealand Grand Prix title at Manfeild next Sunday.
On Sunday morning, the race winning was handed to young Italian driver Raffaele Marciello, who took the lead at the start and held off all comers, extending himself a significant lead to take his maiden TRS win.
The front row of the grid for the 20-lap NZ Motor Cup race on Sunday afternoon was an all-Kiwi affair, with Mitch Evans on pole and Nick Cassidy alongside. The second row of the grid saw Hannes van Assseldonk line up behind Evans with Raffaele Marciello alongside.
Off the start, Cassidy shot into the lead. “All weekend I’ve really been able to master the starts, I’m really pleased with how it’s come together. Taupo was pretty bad by comparison, I couldn’t seem to get anything right off the starts,” Cassidy said afterward.
Making his customary aggressive start, Hannes van SAsseldonk had comne through to second place, rookie Lucas Auer past Marciello and holding fourth.
The race was immediately interrupted when Bruno Bonifacio went off at turn 2, bringing out the safety car. Three laps behind the safety car while Bonifacio’s car was recovered bunched the field up close together, and when the race went back to “green” Evans slipped neatly past van Asseldonk to be second behind Cassidy.
The gap between leader Cassidy and Evans stretched out close to a minute, Evans then mounting a charge over several laps to cut the gap back to .4 sec but then finding himself unable to get closer to Cassidy.
Behind them Dmitry Suranovich and Shahaan Engineer were side by side in the hairpin and all the way around to the front straight, Suranovich squeezing ahead of the young Indian driver.
With eight laps remaining the top ten race order was Cassidy, Evans, van Asseldonk, Auer, Marciello, Josh Hill, Nathanael Berthon, Jordan King, Jono Lester and Southland’s Damon Leitch. Jono Lester had started 12th and would go as high as eighth overall.
Dmitry Suranovich went off at turn 8, unable to regain the track. This brought out the safety car once more.
From the re-start Cassidy once more leapt away from the field, re-establishing his lead with impunity.
On the last lap, Leitch put an ambitious passing move on Jono Lester at the track’s tight downhill left hand hairpin, pushing his car up the inside of Lester and onto the track edge “ripple” strips. He slid sideways into
Lester’s car, the impact spinning Lester completely around mid-track at the exit of the turn and throwing Leitch’s car into the air.
Leitch landed on the grass, his right rear suspension smashed; Lester was able to rejoin. Shahaan Engineer also visited the grass to get past the stricken car of Leitch and the spun car of Lester.
But even as the melee was sorted out, Cassidy was across the finish line to win the prestigious NZ Motor Cup and extend his championship points lead. He had posted fastest lap of the race in the process, a 1:00.944. Cassidy now has a championship tally of 730 and a 128 point advantage over van Asseldonk in second. Leitch , who led after the first round at Teretonga, has banked enough points to preserve third in the championship going into the final round, which culminates in the New Zealand Grand Prix next weekend at Manfeild.
See also
- Evans returns to TRS in dominant form
- Damon Leitch endures tough weekend
Results
Qualifying
1 Mitch Evans 1:00.602
2 Nick Cassidy 1:00.624
3 Hannes van Asseldonk 1:00.685
4 Raffaele Marciello 1:00.742
5 Lucas Auer (R) 1:00.984
6 Jordan King 1:01.022
7 Josh Hill 1:01.024
8 Bruno Bonifacio (R) 1:01.096
9 Dmitry Suranovich (R) 1:01.193
10 Nathanael Berthon 1:01.218
11 Chris Vlok (R) 1:01.250
12 Jono Lester (R) 1:01.536
13 Shahaan Engineer (R) 1:01.554
14 Damon Leitch 1:01.655
15 Tanart Sathienthirakul (R) 1:01.672
16 Melvin Moh (R) 1:01.812
17 Michela Cerruti (R) 1:01.822
18 Felix Serralles 1:02.954
19 Sheban Siddiqi (R) 1:03.189
Race 1 (15 laps)
1 Mitch Evans
2 Hannes van Asseldonk
3 Nick Cassidy
4 Lucas Auer (R)
5 Raffaele Marciello
6 Jordan King
7 Josh Hill
8 Nathanael Berthon
9 Bruno Bonifacio (R)
10 Jono Lester (R)
11 Dmitry Suranovich (R)
12 Damon Leitch
13 Shahaan Engineer (R)
14 Melvin Moh (R)
15 Tanart Sathienthirakul (R)
16 Sheban Siddiqi (R)
17 Chris Vlok (R)
18 Michela Cerruti (R)
Not Classified
DNS Felix Serralles
Race 2 (15 laps)
1 Raffaele Marciello
2 Lucas Auer (R)
3 Jordan King
4 Hannes van Asseldonk
5 Nick Cassidy
6 Jono Lester (R)
7 Damon Leitch
8 Shahaan Engineer (R)
9 Bruno Bonifacio (R)
10 Tanart Sathienthirakul (R)
11 Michela Cerruti (R)
12 Chris Vlok (R)
13 Melvin Moh (R)
14 Dmitry Suranovich (R)
Not classified (75% = 12 Laps)
15 Mitch Evans
16 Josh Hill
17 Nathanael Berthon
18 Sheban Siddiqi (R)
Race 3 (20 Laps) NZ Motor Cup
1 Nick Cassidy
2 Mitch Evans
3 Hannes van Asseldonk
4 Josh Hill
5 Lucas Auer (R)
6 Nathanael Berthon
7 Jordan King
8 Raffaele Marciello
9 Tanart Sathienthirakul (R)
10 Melvin Moh (R)
11 Michela Cerruti (R)
12 Chris Vlok (R)
13 Shahaan Engineer (R)
14 Sheban Siddiqi (R)
15 Jono Lester (R)
Not classified (75% = 15 Laps)
DNF Damon Leitch
DNF Dmitry Suranovich (R)
DNF Bruno Bonifacio (R)
Points (after 4/5 rounds - top seven)
1 Nick Cassidy Auckland, NZ 730
2 Hannes van Asseldonk Netherlands 602
3 Damon Leitch Invercargill, NZ 571
4 Josh Hill United Kingdom 520
5 Jordan King United Kingdom 516
6 Raffaele Marciello Switzerland 460
7 Jono Lester Auckland, NZ 439
