Penalty costs Kiwi in TRS
A penalty for jumping the start proved costly for Taylor Cockerton in the second race of the Toyota Racing Series as it ended up costing him his first win.
The Pukekohe driver looked to have given New Zealand drivers back-to-back victories at Ruapuna in Christchurch following on from Christchurch’s Marcus Armstrong’s win in race win last weekend.
A reverse top-six grid saw Cockerton start on the front row alongside Brazilian Pedro Piquet.
He maintained the lead for 15 laps as he took the checkered flag.
‘‘I knew that if I could get ahead of Pedro I could then control the race from there,’’ he said.
‘‘It was one of the most stressful races I’ve been in, particularly the last part as I was coming under pressure from Pedro.’’
But elation turned to disappointment for the second-year TRS driver.
Officials eventually penalised three cars, including that of Cockerton, 10 seconds for false starts as well as handing Piquet a 30-second penalty for a race incident with Australian Thomas Randle.
It demoted Cockerton to fourth with Randle taking the win.
‘‘I wasn’t aware of the inquiry and felt I had genuinely won the race but a false start is a false start. At least we came away with fourth,’’ Cockerton said.
The feature 20-lap Lady Wigram Trophy race rubbed salt into the wound as Cockerton suffered an electrical issue from the start.
‘‘I bogged down at the start and after hooking second [gear] found there was a lack of power. This continued off and on during the race with the power cutting in and out.’’
Worse was to follow with the race having several restarts after incidents with other competitors.
‘‘The restarts were shocking,’’ Cockerton said. ‘‘Everyone took off and then slowed up. Someone smacked into me from behind and created more issues. I punctured and had to pit only to puncture again on the next lap.
‘‘In the end it was a matter of finishing.
‘‘It has been a tough weekend points wise but the important thing is we finished every race and we know we have the speed to contend in the top-five. So we take a lot of positives heading to the next round at Teretonga.’’
Indian driver Jehan Daruvala led from start to finish repeating his win of 12 months ago. The five round series now heads to Invercargill with Dutch driver Richard Verschoor leading the points table, Cockerton placed in seventh overall.
The series wraps up with the New Zealand Grand Prix at Manfeild on February 11.