Sport + Motorsport
After a dry spell in the south, the heavens opened as the Ascot Park Hotel Teretonga Park International, part of the Repco NextGen NZ Championship, was held over the weekend.
It wasn’t until Sunday afternoon that any of the six classes on the programme managed to race in dry conditions. Persistent rain created plenty of incidents, with the safety car called upon numerous times across the weekend.
Despite the challenging conditions, there were several highlights. These included the appearance of international drivers from eleven different countries competing in the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy, a lunchtime demonstration on Sunday featuring Kiwi Supercar driver Ryan Wood in the Gen3 Ford Mustang he raced last season in Australia alongside Tony Quinn in a Gen3 Camaro, and the first visit to Teretonga Park by the powerful V8s of the SP Tools TA2 NZ Championship.
Three races were completed for the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy drivers. A fourth race was scheduled but dropped from the programme due to conditions and will be contested later in the series.
The feature event, the Spirit Of A Nation Cup, saw the winners of the two earlier races — Freddie Slater of the UK and Ugo Ugochukwu of the United States — line up together on the front row. Slater led early in dry conditions before Ugochukwu took the lead at the start of lap 15. Soon after, Kiwi driver Sebastian Manson hit the wall, forcing a stoppage.
Showers swept across the circuit while drivers waited for a restart, with all cars fitted with wet tyres when racing resumed. Ugochukwu led away but went off at the first corner, dropping to the back of the field. Slater inherited the lead and went on to win ahead of Kiwi Louis Sharp, with Japanese driver Jin Nakamura finishing third.
On Saturday, Slater had won the opening race from Nakamura, while two-time World Rally Champion Kalle Rovanperä of Finland claimed his first podium of the series in third place.
The field lined up for the second race later on Saturday afternoon with series leader Ugochukwu on pole, but the race was abandoned due to conditions and postponed until Sunday. When it was run, Ugochukwu led from start to finish despite three safety car interventions. Kiwi Ryan Wood finished second, with American Cooper Shipman third.
Caleb Byers of Christchurch won the first-ever SP Tools TA2 NZ Championship race at Teretonga Park on Saturday, ahead of Toby Elmiger and Dylan Grant. Byers backed that up on Sunday morning, leading home Peter Ward and Grant, before Elmiger claimed the final race after opting for slick tyres.
Chris White Junior of Prebbleton won Saturday’s Bridgestone GR86 Championship race, with fourteen-year-old Ajay Giddy second and Zach Blincoe third. Sunday morning’s race finished under safety car, giving Justin Allen the win ahead of Blincoe, with Josh Bethune third. White returned to the winner’s circle in race three, ahead of Giddy and Hugo Allan.
In the Summerset GT NZ Championship, Porsche drivers Rick Armstrong, Luke Manson and Nigel Cromie each claimed a race win. Armstrong, from Christchurch, secured the overall round victory, while Australian Lachlan Evennett and Glen Chappel took GT4 honours.
The opening race of the NAPA NZ Formula Ford Championship also ended under safety car, with thirteen-year-old Australian Sebastian Eskandari-Marandi winning his first-ever car race ahead of Dylan Petch and Campbell Owens. Jacob Begg of Winton finished fourth in his Ray GR21.
Eskandari-Marandi won again on Sunday morning from Owens and Begg. In dry conditions for the third race, Auckland’s Marco Manson took the win ahead of Owens and Australian Toby Musico of Queensland, with Begg finishing sixth.
The first two Nexen Tyre Mazda Racing Super Series races were heavily disrupted by weather, with very few racing laps completed until the finale. Three different winners emerged across the races — Tomas Climo of Hamilton, Callum Pratt of Auckland and Stu Lawton of Paraparaumu — with Lawton securing the overall round win.
The next event at Teretonga Park is the Ascot Park Hotel Classic SpeedFest, scheduled for the weekend of 21–22 February.