Brendon Leitch can only look forward to the last two rounds of the 2017 Castrol Toyota Racing Series after another tough weekend at Round 3 of the series at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in North Waikato this weekend.
Leitch, originally from Invercargill but now based in Cromwell, finished third in the series against top class international opposition last year but has had a frustrating time to date in 2017.
Local driver Brendon Leitch shone on Saturday, grabbing second in the opening race of the weekend in the Castrol Toyota Racing Series behind Dutchman Richard Verschoor after Thomas Randle of Australia was penalised for a jump start. Leitch was taken off the track in an incident at the beginning of the second race on Sunday morning along with Ferdinand Habsburg of Austria and Enaam Ahmed of the UK while soon after American Kory Enders slid off and his car overturned, Pedro Piquet of Brazil winning from Verschoor and Randle.
Leitch was quick in his ITM FT-50 in Friday’s three practice sessions and went into Saturday’s two qualifying sessions with confidence. In the first he set the fourth fastest time before a mistake in the second saw him only thirteenth. From that point on he said, the weekend was “all downhill.”
A great start in the opening race saw Leitch into second place behind his team mate Thomas Randle of Australia but both Victory Motor Racing drivers were caught out at turn two of the race as they slid wide on a part of the track that was breaking up. Several others were caught out at the same spot, causing the race to be restarted, Leitch eventually finishing twelfth.
That result saw Leitch down the grid for Sunday morning’s contest. He caught the group ahead but was unable to make up positions, eventually crossing the line sixteenth. The feature event of the weekend was the prestigious NZ Motor
Cup race over 20 laps on Sunday afternoon. From thirteenth on the grid Leitch had hustled the ITM FT-50 to tenth but later he dropped a wheel off the racing line and picked up some asphalt on the tyres of the car which meant he locked up under brakes, hitting the car of American Kory Enders. Leitch pitted to have a new front wing fitted losing several laps. He eventually resumed in an attempt to secure as many points as possible.
The results have dropped Leitch to tenth in the series. The three race winners for the round were Marcus Armstrong of Christchurch, Enaam Ahmed of England and Thomas Randle in the feature.
“I’ve never had a weekend like that before,” said Leitch on Sunday evening. ”We had good car speed early in the weekend. My team mate Thomas Randle is going really quick and is pushing me along too. The track was breaking up in race one and I got caught out on the marbles. In race two I was down the grid and while the ITM FT-50 was fast and I caught the group in front you can’t pass easily here. People were driving defensively and making it tough. In the third race we picked up a bit of asphalt on the tyre and hit Kory. You just have to take this stuff on the chin and not get down about it. The goal at the last two rounds is to do a good qualifying, keep performing and hopefully pick up some race wins.”
The series moves to Taupo next weekend.
2017 TOYOTA RACING SERIES
- Round 1: Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna, Christchurch – 14/15 January 2017
- Round 2: Teretonga Park, Invercargill – 21/22 January 2017
- Round 3: Hampton Downs Motorsport Park – 28/29 January 2017
- Round 4: Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park, Taupo – 4/5 February 2017Round 5: Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon, Feilding – 11/12 February 2017 (New Zealand Grand Prix)