Invercargill’s own Damon Leitch is preparing to improve his form in the Toyota Racing Series, starting next weekend at Teretonga Park.
In 2012, Leitch, 19, took the overall points lead at the opening round, his ‘home’ event; then fought off challenges from the 15 international drivers to stay in touch with eventual champion Nick Cassidy of Auckland.
Eventually finishing third in last year’s championship, Leitch says he’s aiming to lift the title this year and says he is the best prepared he has ever been for the punishing 15-race, five weekend championship.
He has spent the winter finalising his sponsors and racing karts to stay race-fit and in shape and now he’s looking to make the preparation pay off on track.
He will contest the series with Nelson team Victory Motor Racing.
Meanwhile, defending champion Cassidy faces possibly the biggest challenge of his motorsport career as the 2013 championship gets under way. Not only is he facing what many say is the strongest field of international racers ever to contest TRS, he is doing so with a new race team, a new engineer and new mechanics.
A near-record field of 18 drivers will contest the series, which begins next weekend and runs over five consecutive weekends from Teretonga to Timaru, then to the North Island at Taupo and Hampton Downs before arriving at Manfeild near Palmerston North for the final round, the New Zealand Grand Prix.
The championship is New Zealand’s premier motor racing category and offers drivers some of the most historic and prestigious trophies in New Zealand motorsport including the New Zealand Grand Prix.
Aucklander Cassidy, 18, went from winning the rookie title in 2011 to winning the championship in 2012. He has switched from the multiple championship-winning Giles Motorsport team to be part of a six-car entry from Hamilton-based M2 Competition.
Cassidy competed in several Formula Renault Eurocup races after winning the TRS title in 2012 and has tested a GP3 car for the Status GP team.
He also filled in for an injured Greg Murphy in the New Zealand V8 Supertourer event at Taupo, winning on debut in the big touring cars.
With strong local and international interest in the series, Cassidy’s title defence will face strong opposition this year.
Cassidy and Leitch are joined by a third New Zealander, Te Puke’s Michael Scott, who is stepping up from Formula Ford to make his ‘wings and slicks’ debut in TRS.
Arriving this week to compete against the young New Zealanders are 15 drivers from around the world, some of them with prior experience of TRS.
International drivers returning for their second season of TRS this year are Brazilian Bruno Bonifacio, Puerto Rican Félix Serrallés, British driver Alex Lynn, Austrian Lucas Auer and Thailand’s Tanart Sathienthirakul.
These drivers have prior knowledge of New Zealand’s circuits, they know the car and have all competed in Europe with some outstanding results in 2012.
Serralles finished third in British Formula 3 championship; Lynn won the Formula Renault 2.0 UK championship in 2011 and recently took pole at the famous Macau Grand Prix Formula 3 race in November 2012, finishing third in his rookie debut; Auer finished second in the 2012 German Formula 3 championship and Bruno Bonifacio finished third in the Formula Abarth European championship.
TRS will again have a young female driver on the starting grid: Colombian Tatiana Calderon comes to New Zealand fresh from a strong campaign in the 2012 European Open F3 series.
Jann Mardenborough from Cardiff in the UK is a unique entry, a gamer-turned-racer. Outright victory in the Nissan Sony Playstation Gran Turismo gaming competition in 2011 won him the opportunity to compete in a season of GT racing in 2012. He comes to TRS to gain experience in an open-wheel race car on his way to competing in the famous Le Mans 24-Hour sportscar race.
Championship organisers say the Toyota Racing Series has been a stand out success, offering many young New Zealand racing drivers the opportunity to learn the skills necessary to compete at the highest levels of motorsport around the world.
Young international drivers come to New Zealand to race TRS to hone their skills on unfamiliar tracks while their European tracks are closed for winter.
Now entering its ninth season, the series has not been won by an international driver.
Via Fairfax NZ
While I’m very happy to hear about the upcomming TRS series and to keep up with what’s happening with our local talant and will be following with interest, I think the writer of the above article got one thing wrong!
In my view and also the view of many others in NZ we can hardly call it the “premier motor racing catagory” here. I mean there’s only 5 race meetings and and a bunch of young competitors gaining experience for their futures.
Incidently I hope our guys’ teams have the expertise, and our boys are guided well so they blow the foreigners away!
PK.