Close-fought race dashes hopes of defending champion

Christchurch racer Andy Knight took a flag to flag victory in today's Toyota New Zealand Grand Prix, extending his lead in the 2008 Toyota Racing Series.
It is his second major trophy win of the series, after he won the New Zealand Motorcup at Pukekohe last November.

Knight was in dominant form, leading from pole and defending against a hard-charging Matt Halliday as the race progressed. Even safety car periods during the race did not enable Halliday to chase Knight down.

From the race start, the leading bunch were Knight, Halliday, defending TRS champion and 2007 Grand Prix winner Daniel Gaunt and 2008 Lady Wigram Trophy winner Earl Bamber.

Palmerston North's Nelson Hartley held fifth but was not close to the front runners.

On the third lap, Michael Burdett made a bold move on Christina Orr, overtaking her on the back straight. Icelandic driver Kristján Einar went off after the fast infield "esses", a left-right corner combination, and rejoined a half lap down.

Shortly afterward, Michael Burdett dropped into the gravel on the exit of the sweeping right hand corner that leads onto the start-finish straight, and Daynom Templeman and Christina Orr overtook Mitch Cunningham.

At the front of the field, though, the action became closer as Matt Halliday tried a series of passing moves on Andy Knight.

Nic Jordan was the next to overtake Cunningham, and almost at the same time Halliday lost ground on Knight after an ambitious overtaking attempt going into the infield left hand corner.

Jordan's race came to a halt when he crashed headfirst into the tyres at the start of the front straight, smashing the nose cone and front wing and bringing out the safety car.

The field closed up on Knight while Jordan's stricken car was removed from the track, but at the re-start the Christchurch driver judged his sprint perfectly and was able to defend his position from Halliday.

Gaunt was also on a charge, but two laps later was out in a two-car tangle with Nelson Hartley.

The pair locked wheels and went off the track at the infield left hand corner, Gaunt ending up backwards into the tyres and Hartley stranded across the track, bringing out the safety car a second time. Hartley was out at the scene, while Gaunt rejoined but pitted with a flat tyre and withdrew from the race.

The incident closed up the field once more and elevated Earl Bamber to third place and Ben Harford to fourth overall.

Behind them Christina Orr was having the best drive of her 2008 season, overtaking Michael Burdett and defending against Hamish Cross, while Daynom Templeman overtook Australian Nathan Antunes.

As the race entered its closing stages, Bamber closed on Halliday and was looking to overtake for second place when he ran wide. Harford put a daring move on Bamber, slipping through to take and hold third place, while Halliday consolidated his second place overall.

Andy Knight won the weekend and extended his Series points tally to 564, while Ben Harford remains second on 458 ahead of Earl Bamber on 423 points.
New Zealand's summer of motorsport continues next weekend as the Toyota Racing Series moves to Taupo for the Denny Hulme Memorial Race at the A1GP race meeting.

Weekend race roundup: Toyota Racing Series 16-lap races

Race 1 to Gaunt

In the first TRS race of the weekend, defending series champion and Grand Prix title holder Daniel Gaunt served notice of his 2008 Grand Prix aspirations, surging into the lead from the second row as the field entered the first corner.

He was third fastest in qualifying but in the first race swept past pole man Matt Halliday and local driver Nelson Hartley to lead from start to finish.

Hartley followed Gaunt through on the first lap and held second place to the flag with Christchurch's Andy Knight making up five places to cross the line third in front of Halliday in fourth and Gaunt's International Motorsport team-mate Earl Bamber fifth.

Series rookie Michael Burdett spun after going wide on the exit of the sweeping corner that leads onto the front straight, and survived a 160 km/h broadside slide down the track with six or more cars bearing down on him, recovering to slot in to tenth place.

Dominic Storey, Ben Harford and Mitch Cunningham tangled on the corner that leads onto the long back straight and Cunningham lost his front wing.

For Gaunt it was a confidence-boosting result after the previous weekend's nightmare at the Lady Wigram Trophy meet at Ruapuna, where he crashed heavily in testing then was relegated to the back of the grid for the Lady Wigram race itself when his car was found to be underweight.

Gaunt said he found good drive off the line and was able to challenge going into the first turn.

Late braking into the corner enabled him to go around the outside of Halliday and emerge in a lead he was able to defend for the entire 16 laps.

Wanganui youth Earl Bamber started and finished fifth and got close to Halliday, twice challenging him going into corners.

Race 2 to Bamber

At noon on Sunday, Bamber won the second TRS race of the Grand Prix race meeting at Manfeild with the biggest margin of the series to date.

In a smooth drive off pole and a drive that included fastest lap of 1:04.178, 17-year-old Bamber set the scene for the Grand Prix itself, leading the field home in his bio-fuelled Toyota single-seater and completing the 16 lap race with a last-lap margin of 5.668 seconds over second-placed Daniel Gaunt.

Gaunt's strong run continued in this second race, coming off fourth on the grid to overtake Matt Halliday and Michael Burdett and secure a comfortable second.

On the first lap Gaunt, Halliday and Bamber were three abreast going into the first corner.

Burdett made two audacious moves on Halliday but was unable to make them stick, while behind him series leader Andy Knight hung on to fifth place and was the last of the front-running pack.

Palmerston North driver Nelson Hartley started alongside Andy Knight on the third row of the grid ran as high as fifth until he misjudged an overtaking bid on Michael Burdett and ran wide at the end of the start-finish straight. He rejoined 11th.

The lead group as the race progressed were Bamber, Gaunt, Halliday, Burdett and Knight.

None of the latter four were able to stay with the flying Bamber, who said before the race his priority was to maximise his series points, but that in the end he would be aiming to "just go out and win this one".



Toyota New Zealand Grand Prix
Top ten positions
Driver Origin Best lap
1.Andy KnightChristchurch1:04.404
2.Matt HallidayAuckland1:04.179
3.Ben HarfordLower Hutt1:04.267
4.Dominic StoreyAuckland1:04.334
5.Earl BamberWanganui1:04.211
6.Daynom TemplemanAuckland1:04.628
7.Christina OrrWhakatane1:04.250
8.Michael BurdettAuckland1:04.496
9.Hamish CrossChristchurch1:04.451
10.Ben CrightonAuckland1:04.815


Points after three rounds (Auckland, Ruapuna and Manfeild)
1.Andy KnightChristchurch564
2.Ben HarfordLower Hutt458
3.Earl BamberWanganui423
4.Nic JordanCambridge378
5.Matt HallidayAuckland232