Toyota Racing Series management are pleased with the results of the category’s rookie test day at Hampton Downs yesterday (Monday)
Four aspiring TRS racers took the opportunity to try current-season cars on-track after a briefing from category manager Barrie Thomlinson.
The group were three Christchurch drivers: current Formula Ford champion James Munro, Tom Alexander and Matt Williams; they were joined by Macauley Jones, son of V8 Supercar team owner Brad Jones.
The four drivers had 40 laps each at Hampton Downs, completing the four sessions without incident.
Recent racing form among the four racers is impressive: NZ FF champion James Munro took his title with ten wins, four poles, 12 podiums and six fastest laps. Tom Alexander was fourth in Formula Ford 2013 with one win, ten podiums and five fastest laps. Matt Williams returns to racing after a couple of seasons away, was third in Formula Ford in 2009-2010 and sixth in 2010-2011. In his most recent season he scored three wins, six podiums and three fastest laps. Macauley Jones moved up from karting in 2012 and was fifth in the 2012 Australian Formula Ford Championship with four podiums and three fastest laps.
Barrie Thomlinson says the strong early interest in the category ahead of its tenth anniversary season is impressive and the quartet showed their professionalism on-track and between sessions, analysing their performance and the basics of car set-up with the TRS and M2 Competition staff who were supporting the test.
“With such strong early interest and some very encouraging performances from these four I think we can be encouraged as we look forward to our tenth season of TRS. In particular, the career progression of the Formula Ford racers and the commitment of Macauley Jones in coming to New Zealand to test is a real endorsement of the results we are seeing from many of the graduates over the past nine seasons of TRS.”
