Early lead in International Trophy goes to young British racer

British racer William Buller is celebrating his first ever single-seater race win after a hard fought Race One victory in the Toyota Racing Series at Timaru.

Buller, 16, lined up on the front row of the grid with team-mate and fellow British racer Will Stevens who had pole.

As the race started it was Buller who got the better start and swept into the lead. Behind him series leader Mitch Cunningham forced his way through from a fourth place start to emerge onto the back straight second overall, pushing pole man Stevens to third.

Cunningham pushed Buller hard throughout the race, and on lap nine almost took the lead when the young Briton had a gearshift problem, but Buller was able to recover and won with a lead of a half second.

When Buller had a gear shift problem late in the race, Cunningham attacked through the turn 1-3 complex and drew alongside Buller’s Rockingham-backed car but Buller was able to defend and retain his lead.

“He had pulled out of the racing line and looked like he’d missed a gear or hit the rev limiter, so I aimed down the inside but he recovered. I got so close, I couldn’t believe he managed to hang onto the lead, but once he got out of the corner things settled down and we just stayed in touch until the finish.”
As the field swept through the first two corners Auckland racer Alistair Wootten made contact with another car and lost his front wing, subsequently pitting for a replacement and rejoining the race.

Hamilton-based racer Michael Burdett, who finished sixth, set a new category and Tier One race lap record for the track, his lap time of 58.890 at an average speed of 144.437 km/h topping the time of 59.031 set by Earl Bamber in March 2008.
Nathan Antunes went off the track on lap 10 of the 14 lap race and was unable to continue, while Adderly Fong spun but was able to rejoin the race.

The second race for the 2009 TRS International trophy takes place at 11.00 am Sunday morning, and is followed by the feature race, over 20 laps, for the Timaru Herald trophy, at 3.05 pm.