Motor Sport
Invercargill driver Brendon Leitch has gathered some good points from his first outing in the 2017 Castrol Toyota Racing Series at Mike Pero Motorsport Park at Ruapuna in Christchurch this weekend.
In what was his first competitive outing in a race car since last year’s series, Leitch qualified thirteenth and tenth in Saturday morning’s two qualifying sessions leaving him plenty of work to do in the three races after some changes were made to his ITM FT-50 race car.
Brendon Leitch and the ITM FT-50 pushing hard at Round 1 of the Castrol Toyota Racing Series at Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna, Christchurch. Photo: Bruce Jenkins
However as he gained mileage over the weekend he steadily made ground, gaining at least three places in each race to place ninth, sixth and seventh across the three races with hearings still to be carried out into the final race, the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy Race.
The three results have left Leitch eighth equal in the championship points after he finished third in the 2016 Series.
Leitch was reasonably happy with the results, saying it was at a round he has “never done particularly well at,” and that he hadn’t done a lot of laps in recent times. He was upbeat about next weekend’s second round at his home circuit of Teretonga Park in Invercargill saying, “we have real good speed there and I am pretty happy heading there. It is going to be a very tight championship and you need to finish every race so it is good to finish with all four wheels attached.”