Friday, 12 February 2021, 1:35 pm
Billy Frazer is the latest Kiwi to head stateside
to take the next steps of his career and despite the long
shadow cast by the COVID-19 pandemic, his move to USF2000 is
a great success for the Castrol Toyota Racing Series and
Road to Indy partnership.
Billy Frazer is
heading to the USA as part of the Road to Indy programme.
Picture Bruce Jenkins
Castrol Toyota Racing
Series drivers who have competed in all rounds of the 2020
and 2021 championship - and that includes Kiwi Driver
Fund-supported Frazer - automatically qualify for a package
that could help them get established in the programme. This
Thursday, 11 February 2021, 2:08 pm
The 2021 Castrol Toyota Series will be remembered
as being unique in the COVID-19 world, but it has also seen
the emergence of a major new Kiwi racing talent in Matthew
Payne.
Against a field of established stars
at the New Zealand Grand Prix, Payne made his mark with a
trifecta of third place finishes. He went even better the
following weekend with two race wins from the two races
securing the Dorothy Smith Memorial Cup in the feature
race.
Matthew Payne leads the
TRS title chase with four races left.
Picture Bruce
Jenkins
It’s that startling form that sees the
Championship leader Simon Evans and up and coming star Ryan Wood have had it all their own way so far in the first two rounds of the Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship, but it could all change this weekend at Manfeild for round three. <img src='https://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/2102/75722bd57e5cac83fcd4.jpeg' .
Matthew
Payne topped qualifying at Hampton Downs for the second TRS
round.
Picture Bruce
Jenkins
The seven remaining cars
in the championship were covered by just seven tenths of a
second – ensuring both of the races on Saturday are likely
to be closely fought affairs.
With just fifteen
minutes available to clock a fast time and with only a few
tenths separating the seven drivers in Friday practice, it
was all to play for in the morning qualifying session on
Hampton Downs’ national circuit.
It was Conrad Clark
who was into his stride earliest and he topped the
timesheets for the first few minutes ahead of Kaleb Ngatoa.
Picture Bruce Jenkins
Shane
van Gisbergen continued his 100% record at the New Zealand
Grand Prix meeting with victory in the second race of the
Castrol Toyota Racing Series.
It was no easy task for
the V8 Supercar racer, however, as rival Chris van der Drift
pressured him throughout.
After starting from pole
position, he made a much better getaway at the lights and
beat fellow front row sitter Chris van der Drift in the drag
race to the first turn. Second row sitter Ngatoa got a poor
start and dropped back outside of the top five while Matthew
continued his impressive rookie form with another good