KING TAKES FIRST RACE WIN AT TOYOTA RACING SERIES TAUPO ROUND

KING TAKES FIRST RACE WIN AT TOYOTA RACING SERIES TAUPO ROUND
- BRDC drivers King and Hill in historic TRS 1-2 result
- New race lap record set as King goes fastest

British driver Jordan King took his first win of the 2012 Toyota Racing Series today, setting fastest lap for the 3.32 km Taupo Motorsport Park track in the process.
Racing from pole position, King set his mark on the race from the green light, sweeping ahead of young Austrian Lucas Auer (nephew of Formula One great Gerhard Berger) on the short start straight and into the first corner. He was never headed, extending his lead to three seconds during the race. He is the fifth different winner in seven races over three rounds of the series, which reaches its midpoint this weekend.
Auer fell back from his front row start and finished seventh, while series leader Nick Cassidy was fifth. Southlander Damon Leitch hunted Auer through the closing laps of the race and made a clean pass to demote him from sixth to seventh at the chequered flag.
The placing is significant for the first race tomorrow, where the top six positions are reversed and the driver who finished sixth today – Leitch – has pole for the start. Leitch’s effort makes that race an all-Kiwi affair off the front row with Nick Cassidy alongside Leitch.
King said afterward he had worked hard on his race strategy, and he was elated to see the field strung out in his rear view mirrors as the 15 lap race entered its closing moments.
With Josh Hill (son of 1996 Formula One World Champion Damon and grandson of F1 Champion Graham) finishing second the series records an historic first –Hill and King are both members of the British Racing Drivers Club’s elite Rising Stars programmme, and it is the first time the series has seen a 1-2 result for drivers who are part of this mentoring initiative.
Ferrari Driver Academy member Raffaele Marciello harried Dutch driver Hannes van Asseldonk throughout the race and crossed the line in fourth position.
Josh Hill broke the lap record on lap five of fifteen, with a 1:24.493; King then re-set the mark with a 1:24.444 on lap nine – the latter time more than a second under the existing record of 1:24.588 set by defending TRS champion Mitch Evans in 2010.
The second and third races of the third round of the 2012 Toyota Racing Series will be held at Taupo Motorsport Park tomorrow, with the 15-lap “reverse top six” race at 11.00 am NZDST and the feature race, the Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy over 20 laps, to start at 2.30 pm NZDST.

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