Rookie Burdett on pole for all three races at Teretonga

 Knight and Earl Bamber are eyeball to eyeball at the final round of the Toyota Racing Series, and neither dares to blink.


Bamber, the series leader going into the round, has his work cut out to defeat Andy Knight and take his first TRS title.


In qualifying sessions today at the Teretonga race track near Invercargill Bamber’s car developed a misfire, forcing him to pit during the first session.


When he regained the track, he put in two fast laps as the session came to a close, but was judged to have set his fastest time under a safety yellow flag and penalised five grid places.


That promotes rookie Michael Burdett of Auckland to pole for the first of three races this weekend in the series finale. The final round thus becomes a battle between youth and experience: both Bamber and Burdett are just 17 years old, while Bamber’s main series rival, Christchurch driver Andy Knight is 22.


Knight has come close to winning the Toyota series in the past, with second overall, third overall and fourth overall his results from past seasons. He has won at Teretonga before; Bamber has not. Just 11 points separate the two drivers, with 75 available for a race win and 67 for a second place.


Knight was third fastest on the track in the first session and inherits the outside pole position with Bamber’s relegation. In the second qualifying session, on a warming track, Burdett was clearly fastest, taking pole with a 54.701 second lap – a time that would give him a new lap record if it can be repeated in one of the three races for the bio-fuelled Toyota cars this weekend. The race lap record for the Toyota Racing Series cars is 55.190, set by Daniel Gaunt in 2007. It is the fastest lap by any current tier one or tier two race category entrant.


“We have a really good car set-up here and I’ve been able to carry a lot of speed into and through the first corner, which is where the time is to be made in qualifying. I really like Teretonga, it’s a real driver’s track,” he said.


Bamber’s nightmare continued with an engine that would not run cleanly, leaving him dead last and starting from that position for the second race.



Lower Hutt’s Ben Harford, third overall in the championship, was fourth fastest in the first session and second fastest in the second.


The series title fight will be fought out between Knight – who has start positions for the three races of P2, P5 and P3 (first row of the grid, third row of the grid and second row of the grid); and Bamber whose race start positions are P6, P13 and P13 (third row of the grid, seventh row of the grid and seventh row of the grid).


At stake is the title itself, plus a $10,000 cash prize and the Chris Amon Trophy. Second place is worth $8,000; third place $7,000.


Also up for grabs is the Chris Amon International Scholarship, a $30,000 boost to the successful driver’s international career aspirations. Rookie of the year – a chase currently led by Michael Burdett – carries a $7,000 prize and a $7,000 travel fund.


Teretonga is the world’s southernmost race track, and its location near the coast means weather can be a factor in race weekend results.


The 2008 Toyota Racing Series uses an E85 ethanol-petrol biofuel blend, meaning this year marks the first such use of biofuels at Teretonga.


Toyota Racing Series race programme

Teretonga

Saturday March 8 Sunday March 9

4:50 pm TRS Race 1 11:15 am TRS Race 2

3:40 pm TRS Race 3, Spirit of a Nation

Toyota Racing Series points

After 6 rounds of 7