Waite Wins TRS Race Two at Manfeild
• Wing damage slows Bamber

• Pentus and Foresti tangle and crash

• Waite makes the most of front row start

Aucklander Andrew Waite made sure of victory in race two for the Toyota Racing Series this morning at Manfeild.

His win was almost an exact duplicate of his race two performance at Hampton Downs a week ago. There, Waite found himself on pole as a result of the top six reverse grid format, and led from flag to flag.

This time was slightly more challenging.

The blond Aucklander was on the outside of the front row alongside pole man Lucas Foresti of Brazil.

At race start, he judged his launch perfectly to put the Tyre Plus Toyota ahead of Foresti and then moved cleanly across going into the first right hand corner.

Sam MacNeill started from second row on the grid, right behind Foresti, and moved through to hold second place, demoting the Brazilian to third where he came under attack from Daniel Jileson who had made a blinding start from row four of the grid alongside Mitch Evans.

By the third lap, Waite had a two second lead over local driver MacNeill.

Estonian Sten Pentus shared the Championship points lead with Aucklander Mitch Evans going into the race, and had moved up to shadow Foresti.

In Dunlop, the long right hand corner that leads onto the start finish straight, the two cars came together and both international drivers went off the track. Pentus rejoined without his front wing, while Foresti’s car was bellied in the gravel trap.

The incident brought out the safety car, bunching up the field behind waite and wiping out his early lead.

The leading group, Waite, MacNeill, Daniel jileson, Richie Stanaway and Mitch Evans, stayed close together as the safety car re-entered pit lane and racing resumed.

Wanganui’s Earl Bamber, third on points in the Championship, was also looking to move up the standings. He got a run on Evans in the infield turns, drew alongside down the back straight and then made a clean outbraking pass going into Dunlop.

Tauranga’s Richie Stanaway had moved through to third, putting Daniel Jileson next in line for Bamber.

Stefan Webling hit Bamber on the front straight, shunting him into Daniel Jileson who spun broadside off the track at high speed. Webling as penalised with a drive-through penalty as a result of the tangle. The damage to Bamber’s car included a flattened front wing end plate, forcing the Wanganui driver to slow and putting an end to his charge through the field.

Jileson regained the track in last place.

The front three remained unchallenged. Waite had pulled out a 1.5 second lead again, while Stanaway moved past MacNeill to be second.

Mitch Evans overtook Bamber, making the most of the latter’s damaged car to take a strategically important track position.

The following lap, desperate to re-take position, Bamber found himself on the grass on the front straight, part of a three-wide fight for the advantage at Toyota corner with Jamie McNee and Evans.

Webling was assessed a 50 second penalty at race end, meaning his finish position ended up behind all but Sten Pentus, who had also received a drive-through penalty for his tangle with Foresti.

Pentus had the consolation of setting a new TRS and outright lap record of 1:03.801 at an average speed of 140.441 km/h.

The weekend’s feature race, the 35 lap New Zealand Grand Prix, starts at 2.20 pm this afternoon with Mitch Evans on pole and Earl Bamber alongside him. By 3.00 pm the newest name to be inscribed on this historic trophy will be known.

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