High blustery winds, a threat of rain and a circuit surface without much rubber laid down held the Toyota Racing Series field back from  showing their potential today at Highlands Motorsport Park but there is little doubt the front end of the grid will set, break and reset the lap record during  three races for the championship in its first visit to the circuit this weekend.

The cars completed familiarisation  testing at the circuit today with only a handful of incidents as the drivers got to grips with the challenging circuit.

Steijn Schothorst, Andrew Tang and Egor Orudzhev were among those who set top times that dipped into the low 1:30s bracket.

In the first session Egor Orudzhev was fastest, posting a 1:34.788 to equal the times set by the exotica of the Australian GT series.  Times quickly fell during the second session despite two red light periods, with top racers closing on a 1:30 lap.

Race pundits are picking the lap times will fall another two seconds as the circuit ‘rubbers-in’ over coming days. The driver who sets fastest time in the first race will set the category and outright race lap record. There will then be opportunities to reset the record the following day. The feature race on Sunday is for the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy, which will be won at this circuit for the first time.

Estonian driver Martin Rump has an eight point lead going into this mid-point round of the championship.

Race programme times are:

Friday 24th

Testing

10:30 – 30 minutes
13:30 – 30 minutes
15:00 – 30 minutes
Saturday 25th
11:00 – Qualifying 2 x 15 minute sessions
15:00 – Race 1 – 15 laps
Sunday 26th
11:00 – Race 2 – 15 laps – partial reverse grid
15:00 – Race 3 – 20 laps (Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy)