ANOTHER FLYING DUTCHMAN

Red Bull Racing has nurtured a seemingly endless stream of young racers over the years, including our own Brendon Hartley, who went on to become a World Endurance Champion for Porsche.

The Castrol Toyota Racing Series season has seen the team’s latest talent, Dutchman Richard Verschoor, take on and beat more experienced opponents to put himself in pole position for the highly regarded series title, and that’s saying something in a field of young guns all aiming for Formula One.

Verschoor’s consistency has been the key — with high-placed finishes underpinning his massive points haul. But he also has amazing speed. In the feature race at Teretonga Park for the Spirit of a Nation Cup recently, he simply walked away from the field in very challenging wet conditions, dominating throughout and marching away to one of the most impressive wins in recent seasons in New Zealand’s premier single-seater category.

It’s always tough to pick an outstanding talent among the young Toyota single-seater aces who venture down to the southern hemisphere to sharpen their skills for wings and slicks series in the northern hemisphere’s summer, but Verschoor is showing all the signs of being another Vettel or Verstappen.