Cunningham Faces Final Trs Title Test At Pukekohe

12 March 2009

Cunningham Faces Final Trs Title Test At Pukekohe

• Grand Prix weekend sets up classic duel
• TRS title fight goes to the wire

Mitch Cunningham, Auckland, faces his final test – three races – in his drive to win the 2008-2009 Toyota Racing Series.

As the premier single-seater racing series heads for the high speed Pukekohe track near Auckland, Mitch Cunningham will be watching his mirrors closely.

Behind him, close enough to challenge for the title and coming off a sensational New Zealand Grand Prix weekend where he scored a second and a third, is Palmerston North driver Sam MacNeill.

Though Cunningham has been single-minded all season in his pursuit of championship points, the Grand Prix weekend showed how quickly such a strategy can be derailed.

Just a fortnight ago at Manfeild, Cunningham’s charge to the title slowed when he slipped off the track in the Dan Higgins Trophy race, rejoining at the tail of the field as Earl Bamber and Daniel Gaunt – both making one-off appearances in the series – fought on to the finish.

A third in the ten lap sprint race – the 100th TRS race – restored some much-needed points but Cunningham once more slipped down the order in the later stages of the Grand Prix and he slipped off the track, once more falling to the rear of the field.

Sam MacNeill, meanwhile, had only a gearchange cable breakage to mar an otherwise memorable weekend, with second in the Dan Higgins race and third in the Grand Prix.

Earl Bamber came won the Dan Higgins Trophy for a second time; the 100th race and the Grand Prix both fell to two-time TRS champion Daniel Gaunt, who has now won 20 per cent of all TRS races in the history of the series

Once again, the Toyota Racing Series goes undecided into its final round. Just 134 points separate series leader Cunningham on 929 points from second-placed Sam MacNeill on 795, with 75 points available from each race win.

Young Australian driver Scott Pye is third on 737 and looks set to take out the rookie title in his first season driving "wings and slicks" cars. His main rival for that title, Daniel Jilesen, is 155 points behind him on 582 points.

In 2007-2008, the title battle went to the final round – and to the last corner of the final race. Christchurch driver Andy Knight had held off Earl Bamber all season, Bamber setting a strong of lap records and fastest times as he chased Knight.

This year the stage is set for another classic duel, with both Cunningham and MacNeill keen to go racing for the title this weekend.

Following the series finale this weekend, the TRS cars have one more race outing at the Hamilton 400 street race. It will be the second time the premier class has raced on a street circuit.

Lites are on

The other success story of the Grand Prix weekend was the debut of the new TRS Lites class, which offers young drivers a chance to make the transition to the TRS championship cars in an “arrive and drive” package with reduced power and aerodynamics.

The Lites are engineered and maintained by TRS and the package will work on all aspects of a rising race star’s performance.

The cars run in the same races as the championship cars but for safety are started from the rear of the grid.

Their power outputs have been designed for safety at all circuits the TRS cars race, keeping the cars close enough to the pace of the championship cars that the speed differential is not putting drivers at risk if the Lites are lapped in longer races.

Auckland’s Mitchell Evans (14) and Rangiora youngster Chris Cox (16) trialled the cars on-track for TRS, and both said the step up from karts through Formula Ford is perfectly presented to give racers a taste of the premier class before they make the step up to the championship itself.

The trial went without a hitch, and TRS management will now fine-tune the Lites package ready for its introduction in the 2009-2010 championship season.

So the championship comes to its final round, and to the fastest track in the Tier One summer series. The only certainty this weekend is that there will be a new TRS champion, and that he will have truly earned that title.

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