Photo: Toyota Racing Series
Kiwi youngster Nick Cassidy became the Toyota Racing Series champion for a second consecutive time after closest rival Lucas Auer was hit with a penalty after the second race at Manfeild, before going on to win the final race of the season.
Auer was penalised 50 seconds after stewards judged he had forced Steijn Schothorst off track – a move for which he was initially given a bad sportsmanship flag. According to Speedcafe.co.nz, someone linked to the M2 team that both Schothorst and Cassidy drive for asked that the incident was further investigated. The penalty stripped Auer of his win and demoted him to 14th, which made it mathematically impossible for him to challenge the champion. Auer’s Giles Motorsport teammates Felix Serralles and Pipo Derani were also penalised after finishing second and fourth, allowing Bruno Bonifacio to inherit the victory ahead of Cassidy and Ignazio D’Agosto.
Starting on the front row for the third race at Manfeild (also referred to as the New Zealand Grand Prix, 35 laps in length), Cassidy made immediate progress by taking the lead from polesitter Alex Lynn right away. He had to stay on his toes for most of the race, as he could never quite pull away from Lynn and others while Auer was making a great recovery drive, taking fifth at one time in the race while having started in 13th. However,? with 35 laps done and dusted, Cassidy crossed the line as the winner of the 58th New Zealand Grand Prix and a two-time Toyota Racing Series champion.
Lynn and Schothorst (who took his first TRS victory earlier this weekend) completed the podium, with the Brazilian duo of Derani and Bonifacio finishing right behind (Bonifacio inheriting his second win of the season after Auer’s penalty). The Austrian crossed the line in sixth, ahead of Jann Mardenborough and D’Agosto. Serralles and Andrew Tang completed the top ten. The race, despite being much longer than the previous two outings of the weekend, only saw one retirement, as Dennis Olsen went off-track at lap 16.
Lynn’s second-place finish combined with Auer’s post-race penalty allowed the Brit to take second in the standings at the end of the year.
Race 3 resuls
| Pos | Driver | Team | Time/Gap | Laps |
| 1 | Nick Cassidy | M2 Competition | 43m03.743s | 35 |
| 2 | Alex Lynn | M2 Competition | +0.711s | 35 |
| 3 | Steijn Schothorst | M2 Competition | +2.371s | 35 |
| 4 | Pipo Derani | Giles Motorsport | +3.148s | 35 |
| 5 | Bruno Bonifacio | Giles Motorsport | +4.877s | 35 |
| 6 | Lucas Auer | Giles Motorsport | +5.232s | 35 |
| 7 | Jann Mardenborough | ETEC Motorsport | +5.497s | 35 |
| 8 | Ignazio D’Agosto | Victory Motor Racing | +5.995s | 35 |
| 9 | Felix Serralles | Giles Motorsport | +8.248s | 35 |
| 10 | Andrew Tang | ETEC Motorsport | +8.569s | 35 |
| 11 | Damon Leitch | Victory Motor Racing | +9.332s | 35 |
| 12 | Nicholas Latifi | Giles Motorsport | +10.548s | 35 |
| 13 | Tatiana Calderon | ETEC Motorsport | +10.829s | 35 |
| 14 | Tanart Satienthirakul | ETEC Motorsport | +11.890s | 35 |
| 15 | Michael Scott | Victory Motor Racing | +12.493s | 35 |
| 16 | Ken Smith | Giles Motorsport | +17.070s | 35 |
| 17 | Pieter Schothorst | M2 Competition | +1 lap | 34 |
| 18 | Akash Nandy | ETEC Motorsport | +2 laps | 33 |
| 19 | Spike Goddard | M2 Competition | +2 laps | 33 |
| DNF | Dennis Olsen | M2 Competition | +20 laps | 15 |
Championship standings
| Pos | Driver | Team | Pts |
| 1 | Nick Cassidy | M2 Competition | 915 |
| 2 | Alex Lynn | M2 Competition | 803 |
| 3 | Lucas Auer | Giles Motorsport | 797 |
| 4 | Steijn Schothorst | M2 Competition | 754 |
| 5 | Bruno Bonifacio | Giles Motorsport | 650 |
| 6 | Felix Serralles | Giles Motorsport | 646 |
| 7 | Pipo Derani | Giles Motorsport | 625 |
| 8 | Damon Leitch | Victory Motor Racing | 588 |
| 9 | Nicholas Latifi | Giles Motorsport | 503 |
| 10 | Jann Mardenborough | ETEC Motorsport | 491 |
| 11 | Tanart Satienthirakul | ETEC Motorsport | 462 |
| 12 | Tatiana Calderon | ETEC Motorsport | 432 |
| 13 | Dennis Olsen | M2 Competition | 410 |
| 14 | Akash Nandy | ETEC Motorsport | 361 |
| 15 | Andrew Tang | ETEC Motorsport | 345 |
| 16 | Michael Scott | Victory Motor Racing | 315 |
| 17 | Spike Goddard | M2 Competition | 262 |
| 18 | Mitch Evans* | Giles Motorsport | 204 |
| 19 | Ignazio D’Agosto* | Victory Motor Racing | 181 |
| 20 | Ryan Cullen* | M2 Competition | 122 |
| 21 | Pieter Schothorst* | M2 Competition | 67 |
| 22 | Ken Smith* | Giles Motorsport | 64 |
* denotes part-time campaign