Bob McMurray writes from the fourth round of the 2016 Toyota Racing Series
Weather….all good no worries, no hat.
A quiet evening again for the teams, at least as far as car preparation is concerned.
The only damage was to the car of Hanses (right front) and the electrical problem that affected Ptak was cured.
So, all good.
After yesterday’s race, I am even more impressed with the talent on show in this series.
There are some seriously good drivers out there and they are all young.
With the driving standards of today on the public roads seemingly getting worse, especially amongst the younger generation where the cheap, old used cars that are easily available have more horse power than any of the cars of my generation, perhaps it is good to know that these young racers are ‘boys’ who race and NOT ‘boy racers’.
There is a huge difference in those phrases.
These guys, and often girls, are taught how to handle speed, adversity on track and simple car control and how not to get into bad situations on the track rather than fling themselves headlong into situations without thought of the consequences.
All race drivers get themselves into awkward positions on track now and again, it is part of racing, always has been and always will be, but it is rare to hear of trained race drivers getting into those sorts of situations on the open road.
The key here is training, then more training, before licences for a deadly weapon are issued.
Juan Manuel Fangio once said “Driving fast on the track does not scare me. What scares me is driving on the highway and getting passed by some idiot who thinks he is Fangio”.
Remember, a meteor hitting your car is an accident, anything else is driver error.
And so to the day at hand……..
Race #2 of the weekend.
Another great race that was determined by two things.
Both involving the starts.
The first was at the beginning of the race (surprisingly) when front row man Brendon Leitch made a magic start to out drag Devlin de Francesco to turn #1 and then seemed to have the race under control especially as de Francesco had an early off track incident and allowed Leitch to pull away.
Unfortunately for him a safety car period and restart saw him get swamped at the start and he fell away to fourth.
That restart, which resulted in four cars attempting to get through turn #1 abreast, is currently under review by the stewards.
The racing was, once again, exciting with moves being made all around the track.
Not easy to pass here but that results in close quarter racing and some pretty dramatic overtaking attempts.
Some of those attempts resulted in car damage and non finishes.
Hanses versus Laliberte, Buret versus Ptak, Baptista versus Piquet were some of the more dramatic.
As always, it is best to read the race reports for the more accurate information but suffice to say the ‘camaraderie’ between some of the competitors is a trifle strained just now.
The race result, pre any protest, stewards inquiries or other infringements is……..
In winning the race Jehan Daravula also broke the lap record which now stands at 1min 23.357.
The TRS spares truck was pretty busy after that race with a reasonable amount of damage inflicted.
The restart was declared OK by the stewards but penalties were awarded to Habsburg (3 penalty points 30 seconds added to race-time, accrued 7 penalty points so now a 6 position grid penalty for the next race), Ptak (pretty much the same penalty as above), Bean (similar as above) and Buret (similar again).
Busy day for the stewards especially as some members of the various teams do not necessarily agree with the stewards view of things….surprise, surprise.
Race #3 ‘The Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy’
Another great race.
Stars of this race are aplenty but Lando Norris certainly stamped his authority well and truly on the race from the first lap and then from a restart.
The restart caused by removal of debris from the cars of Markelov and Munro after Markelov tried a long shot from the very start and attempted to ‘undertake’ Munro on the approach to
turn #1.
Markelov had his left hand tyres on the dirt on the approach to the corner and simply could not pull the car up as he tried to go underneath Munro at the sharp left turn.
Markelov out on the spot and Munro left to tour to the pits to get a new nose fitted and then he tried to catch the back of the field but was a long way off.
Until the race was red flagged that is and he was then able to get on the back of the queue for the second restart.
He then had the drive of the race as he caught and passed cars to get from 16th up to 11th place, this a track not renown for passing spots.
Maybe his ‘Dander’ was up but he put on a masterful display.
Great racing all the way down the grid again with rookie Taylor Cockerton once again having a strong race.
Until next weekend
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