Aucklander Mitch Evans has made a dominant return to the Toyota Racing Series, qualifying on pole and winning the first of three races this weekend at Hampton Downs south of Auckland.
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.
“I didn’t get a perfect start, a bit of wheelspin off the line, but once we were through the first corner things settled down into a comfortable pace. I think we can go faster tomorrow,” Evans said afterward.
Current championship points leader Nick Cassidy had qualified second and started alongside Evans, but was shouldered aside by van Asseldonk who made a strong start from the second row and was the only driver to attempt to stay with the flying Evans.
Along with second place and a valuable top-up to his championship points, van Asseldonk had the satisfaction of setting a new race lap record for Hampton Downs of 1:00.919.
There are two more races for Toyota Racing Series today (Sunday), including the feature event, the 20-lap NZ Motor Cup. With the best average times in qualifying for the weekend, Evans has pole for that race.
Results (Day 1)
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
