Advantage to Armstrong
Heading to Invercargill for the second round of the Toyota Racing Series, Christchurch’s Marcus Armstrong could not be in a better position with a 16-point lead to second placed team mate Robert Shwartzman.
His win in the Lady Wigram Trophy Race last weekend at the opening TRS round in Christchurch is significant for three reasons.
First, there is the all-important glamour of having your name on the second most prized New Zealand motorsport trophy alongside renowned drivers such as Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss, Bruce Mclaren and Jackie Stewart. Second, he has taken a mental advantage over not only the rest of the TRS field but more importantly his team mate Robert Shwartzman.
After competing in NZ, both will head to Europe and along with former TRS driver Guanyu Zhou from China, compete in the very competitive FIA Formula 3 European Championship. Beating his team mate in New Zealand sends a signal not only to his Prema Team but to other competitors in the European championship, that this season he is the man to beat. The third reason is that he has convincingly won at home twice in one weekend and when it really counts.
A year ago, Armstrong won the opening race of the 2017 TRS but went backwards in the remaining two races.
This year he has admitted to feeling more pressure with family and friends watching, but has got over this hurdle and now has the ‘Trophy’ on his mantel piece.
For the remaining four rounds over the next four consecutive weekends, the target will be to finish every race as high as possible to gather points for the overall title. The icing –on-thecake will be winning the final race, the New Zealand Grand Prix and again have his name itched in history.
Heimgartner on song Supercars driver Andre Heimgartner has taken the overall lead in the BNT V8s heading to their fourth round in Invercargill this weekend.
Heimgartner crossed the line first in all three races at the third round held in Christchurch last weekend. He was only able to claim two victories after a 10-second penalty for jumping the start relegated him to third position in race 1. The 22-year-old will race alongside Rick Kelly, Michael Caruso and Simona De Silvestro at the Braeside-based Nissan Motorsport in the 2018 Australian Supercars Championship.
He joins four other Kiwi drivers, Shane van Gisbergen (Red Bull Holden Racing ), Richie Stanaway (Prodrive Racing), Fabian Coulthard and Scott Mclaughlin (DJR Penske Racing) in one of the best Kiwi lineups we have seen in the series. Second overall in the BNT V8s is Australian Jason Bargwanna with Cambridge’s Nick Ross third.
Also competing in New Zealand’s domestic competition is Australian Jack Smith. Smith won last season’s Kumho Tyres V8 Touring Series in Australia, which is regarded as the ‘third tier’ V8 category behind the Australian Supercars and Supercars 2 Series.
Smith is using the BNT V8s as race practice for his debut in Supercars 2.