Young Austrian driver Lucas Auer is latest to add to a growing entry list for the Toyota Racing Series, confirming that he will return to contest the 2013 championship.
Auer (18) returns to TRS knowing that his speed throughout the 2012 European season will mark him as one of the drivers to watch and that he will be a TRS title contender. The nephew of former Ferrari and McLaren Formula 1 driver Gerhard Berger, he proved fast from the first race of the 2012 TRS scoring two pole positions and a podium on his way to sixth place in the series.
After his 2012 TRS campaign Auer returned to Europe and raced with the highly respected Dutch team van Amersfoort Racing in the ATS Formula 3 Cup in Germany. He scored two wins, two pole positions, 11 podium positions and two fastest laps to eventually finish second in the championship and also won the SONAX Rookie of the Year Award. Auer will rejoin the Giles Motorsport team he raced for in the 2012 Toyota Racing Series.
Before traveling to New Zealand Auer will join seven current and former TRS graduates who will line up to start this month’s iconic FIA Macau Formula 3 Grand Prix. He will be one of three and possibly as many as four or five of these drivers who will then travel to New Zealand to compete in TRS 2013.
“We are extremely proud to confirm yet another young rising star in world motorsport who is returning to TRS for a second time. We must thank Greg “Peewee” Siddle who encouraged his good friend Gerhard Berger to send Lucas back for a second time and we know he will be another of the drivers challenging the front of the field regularly,” said TRS category manager Barrie Thomlinson.
The Toyota Racing Series is New Zealand’s premier international motor racing championship and includes many of the most prestigious trophies in New Zealand motorsport. The 2013 series begins at Invercargill’s Teretonga Park Raceway, the southernmost racing circuit in the world, 9-13 January 2013 and concludes five weekends later with the 58th New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild near Palmerston North.
Like the 59th Macau Grand Prix this month, the New Zealand Grand Prix is one of only two such races recognised by the FIA outside of Formula One.
