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Following on from last weekends action at Teretonga park Invercargill brothers Brendon and Damon Leitch both showed their speed on their way to a real mixed bag of results at Round 3 of the Toyota Racing Series at Hampton Downs in North Waikato this weekend.After battling gearbox problems in the first two rounds of the series Damon showed just what he is capable of in the first two races of this weekend as carved his way through the field, passing several cars on his way to good results.
Photo:Bruce Jenkins. Leitch in the Post Haste Couriers/Zero Fees carEarlier he had struggled to get a good lap in the first qualifying session and then his Post Haste Couriers/Zero Fees car jammed in gear in the second qualifying session leaving him down the grid for Saturday afternoon’s opening race of the weekend. However he showed his speed in the opener as he drove from fifteenth on the grid through to a fine fifth place in an eventful race that saw several incidents resulting in stoppages and a safety car period.
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Sunday morning’s race was held in heavy rain and Damon lost several positions at the start before he again carving his way through the field to place sixth. At that point Damon had climbed to ninth in the championship points, very satisfying after his problems at the early rounds. The final race, the feature race of the weekend for the prestigious New Zealand Motor Cup, was a disappointment as the drivers went out on a wet track before a call was made to allow a tyre change on the grid. While most of the field went to slicks Damon stuck with the wet tyres. However the track dried quickly during the race and Damon the tyres “cooked” on the dry track, leaving the Southlander to ease off to get to the finish.
Photo:Bruce Jenkins. Brendon Leitch in the ITM/Post Haste Couriers car at Hampton Downs“It was good to get a couple of decent races,” said Damon on Sunday evening after his challenging start to the series. “The car wasn’t perfect but it was okay.” Speaking of his climb from fifteenth to fifth in the opening race he said, “I had a few crash in front of me but I passed a few.” That was a feat in itself as according to most of the drivers passing is very difficult in the new FT-50 chassis being used this year.Meanwhile Brendon qualified tenth fastest for the first race and had climbed to seventh when he ran wide on the fast corner onto the pit straight during the race. The car ran onto the ripple strip which threw it into the air and into the wall, a heavy hit measured at 8.5g’s. However the Victory Motor Racing team did a great job to have the car ready for Sunday morning’s race where Brendon went from twentieth to twelfth. “It was treacherous, the wettest race I’ve ever done. People were driving absolutely crazy, I tried to stay out of it and bring the ITM/Post Haste Couriers car home in one piece,” he said.
In the New Zealand Motor Cup race Brendon had the same problem as Damon. The late call to change tyres on the grid was unexpected and unprecedented and Brendon stayed on wet tyres consigning him to battle home on ineffective tyres.Damon is now ninth in the series and Brendon tenth.
The series moves to the Taupo Motorsport Park for the penultimate round next weekend.echo adrotate_ad(91, array("wrapper" => "yes", "site" => "no"));