Verschoor makes amends at Teretonga
Richard Verschoor has started his fightback in the Toyota Racing Series by winning yesterday’s race at the second round at Teretonga, Invercargill.
The 17-year-old Dutch driver lies third on the points table after failing to finish the Lady Wigram Trophy race at Ruapuna last Sunday.
‘‘I’ve just got to focus on finishing in front of the others,’’ said Verschoor. ‘‘I can’t change what happened with a technical failure last weekend.’’
Verschoor, starting from the outside of the front row of the grid, got the jump on pole position man Clement Novalak, making just his fourth standing start of his career.
By the time Novalak exited the
I can’t change what happened with a technical failure last weekend. Richard Verschoor
first corner he was fourth behind Verschoor, 18-year-old Russian Robert Shwartzman and Christchurch’s Marcus Armstrong who won twice at Ruapuna.
The four completed the 20 laps nose to tail with no change in positions, but the front three pushed each other to ever faster lap times in their efforts to unsettle one another and find a way past.
Initially Verschoor got away, but then ran slightly wide out of one corner and the gaps closed up.
‘‘I wanted to save my tyres at the finish,’’ said Verschoor, who took a narrow win.
Shwartzman and Armstrong both made good starts off the second row of the grid to complete the lockout of the top three places in the same order they finished the first race at Ruapuna.
Novalak had just as much track speed and once he gets his starts dialled in will become a real threat. Behind him English 17-year-old James Pull finished fifth with Florida-based Ecuadorian Jean Manuel Correa sixth.
For today’s main race, Armstrong will start on pole, with Novalak alongside him and Shwartzman and Verschoor on the second row of the grid.
Meanwhile, Andre Heimgartner has continued his championship charge by claiming his fourth consecutive
pole position and winning the opening race at round four of the BNT V8s at Teretonga.
The race for Heimgartner was relatively straight forward, holding off his teammate Jason Bargwanna and the Nissan Altima of Nick Ross through turn one off the start.