Austrian Charlie Wurz extended his series lead in the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship as Round 2 of the Super Sprint Motorsport New Zealand Championships began at Teretonga Park in Invercargill today.
Wurz became the fourth different race winner after four races in the championship which began in Central Otago last weekend. The Austrian, racing at Teretonga Park 31 years after his father, former Formula 1 star Alexander Wurz had competed at the circuit made a good start and passed pole sitter, kiwi Callum Hedge, around the outside of the daunting loop on the first lap of the race. Wurz and Hedge opened a massive gap over third placed Jacob Abel of the United States, who had a train of cars behind him all the way, led by British driver Josh Mason.
Wurz took the chequered flag with Hedge, a race winner at last weekend’s round, .771 of a second behind with Abel over 15 seconds further back. Mason was fourth with the two other winners of races in the series to date, James Penrose of New Zealand and David Morales of the United States, fifth and sixth respectively.
Series leader, Brock Gilchrist of Matakana, took the spoils in the first Toyota 86 Championship race of the weekend leading away from pole position after fastest qualifier Dion Pitt was penalised due to a technical infringement. The contest provided some close racing with Clay Osborne of Morrinsville crossing the line second, just .185 of a second behind with Australian Rylan Gray third.
Jordan Michels of Invercargill was the first to greet the chequered flag in the first Southern Sprint Allcomers Saloon race of the weekend. Fellow Southlander, Liam MacDonald, was second initially but uncharacteristically ran wide after getting on the marbles while lapping traffic. Rally star Hayden Paddon of Cromwell was able to pass to grab second with MacDonald third at the line.
The Dayle ITM Slalom Challenge provided some great entertainment and pitted Chloe Chambers of the USA, the Guinness World Record holder for vehicle slalom, against Paddon, McLaren Extreme E Championship driver Emma Gilmour and North Island Formula Ford Champion Breanna Morris while two members of the Super Sprint television commentary team, Andrew Waite and Stephen McIvor, were late entries. It was Paddon who prevailed with a time of 28.67 seconds, ahead of Waite 29.7 followed by Gilmour, McIvor, Chambers and Morris. Today’s slalom was not the same type of track or rules as the Guinness course.
Tomorrow’s action commences 10.15am with a further qualifying session for the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship cars followed by two races for every class throughout the day including the Spirit Of A Nation Cup race. An added attraction on tomorrow’s programme is the Track Cruise where members of the public can tour the circuit in their own vehicles. Full information is available at supersprint.co.nz