No one seemed more pleased to see James Penrose win the second race of the 2023 Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Championship than Penrose himself. Given the opportunity to start from pole in the reverse top-eight race, the 2020/21 New Zealand Formula Ford champion led from start to finish in a dominant display at Highlands Motorsport Park on Sunday.
Arguably Penrose had two poor qualifying sessions, ending 11th quickest in both, out of a field of 13. The first race on Saturday afternoon saw him circulating in ninth overall until late in the race when #66 Ryan Shehan hit the wall with four laps remaining.
The upshot of this is that Penrose’s eighth place put him on pole-position for the second race on Sunday morning due to a reverse top-eight (from R1 results) format.
Somewhat a gifted opportunity to start from the front, Penrose grabbed it with both hands and took control of the race in a manner that was similar to his dominating 2020/21 Formula Ford season. Within the first lap he had created a gap back to second which increased lap by lap. Even a short safety-car period that closed up the field didn’t impact his strangle-hold and he went on to win by 8.633 seconds.
So what was the secret?
“You get out in front and don’t make mistakes and then then it’s awfully difficult to get passed,” commented Penrose. “I had a good start and got away cleanly. I think Jacob (Abel, who finished second) may have backed off a wee bit, as his tyres may have fallen-off, which gave me a bit of a buffer.”
Why the struggle in qualifying and not the race?
“I think it is slowly clicking and it’s coming together, especially the high-speed stuff,” said Penrose.
“Through the high-speed stuff is where it is at (speed), where the magic is and that’s slowly coming together. Yesterday it wasn’t there and today it is better. Certainly after the last two days I didn’t think a win was possible, so it is a massive confidence boost for the rest of the season.
Penrose went on to finish in eight in the final Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy race and sits in sixth overall heading to the second round this coming weekend at Teretonga Park in Invercargill.
Points after 1/5 rounds
1/ Charlie Wurz (Austria) 76 points
2/ David Morales (USA) 74
3/ Jacob Abel (USA) 58
4/ Ryder Quinn (Aus) 58
5/ Callum Hedge (NZ) 54
6/ James Penrose (NZ) 52
7/ Liam Sceats (NZ) 49
8/ Chloe Chambers (USA) 49
9/ Josh Mason (UK) 45
10/ Tom McLennan (Aus) 30
11/ Lucas Fecury (Br) 29
12/ Ryan Shehan (USA) 29
13/ Bree Morris (NZ) 23
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