Home Formula RegionalFRegional Oceania Cassidy on top in both Thursday sessions at Timaru

Cassidy on top in both Thursday sessions at Timaru

by Valentin Khorounzhiy

Title holder Nick Cassidy headed both Thursday practice sessions at Timaru that opened round two of this season’s Toyota Racing Series championship.

The first practice session was interrupted by a sudden downpour just as most drivers set their first competitive lap times. The rain brought out the red flag, during which everybody switched to wet weather tyres. In the remaining 25-or-so minutes of the session, only Alex Lynn, Spike Goddard and Dennis Olsen managed to improve on their original, pre-red flag times.

As such, Cassidy’s first competitive lap of one minute and 0.368 seconds placed him on top of the timing screens, where he remained for the rest of the session. Lucas Auer set the second fastest time, followed by Felix Serralles, Damon Leitch and Tanart Sathienthirakul.

The second practice session took place entirely in wet conditions and, yet again, it was Cassidy who was quickest in just the right time frame, setting his best lap near the end of the session on a drying track. Again, it was a close one, as Pipo Derani came within one tenth of beating that result, taking second. Lynn took third, ahead of points leader Serralles and Bruno Bonifacio.

Combined Standings
Pos Driver Team Session 1 Session 2 PB Pos
1 Nick Cassidy M2 Competition 1m00.368s 1m05.316s 1
2 Lucas Auer Giles Motorsport 1m00.446s 1m06.003s 2
3 Felix Serralles Giles Motorsport 1m00.580s 1m05.804s 3
4 Damon Leitch Victory Motor Racing 1m01.252s 1m06.609s 4
5 Tanart Satienthirakul ETEC Motorsport 1m01.314s 1m07.479s 5
6 Steijn Schothorst M2 Competition 1m01.704s 1m06.529s 6
7 Bruno Bonifacio Giles Motorsport 1m01.723s 1m05.821s 5
8 Pipo Derani Giles Motorsport 1m01.782s 1m05.400s 2
9 Tatiana Calderon ETEC Motorsport 1m02.230s 1m07.370s 9
10 Jann Mardenborough ETEC Motorsport 1m02.430s 1m06.313s 8
11 Andrew Tang ETEC Motorsport 1m02.580s 1m07.369s 11
12 Alex Lynn M2 Competition 1m03.195s 1m05.571s 3
13 Akash Nandy ETEC Motorsport 1m03.412s 1m06.698s 12
14 Nicholas Latifi Giles Motorsport 1m03.901s 1m05.905s 6
15 Ryan Cullen M2 Competition 1m04.059s 1m09.086s 15
16 Spike Goddard M2 Competition 1m04.471s 1m06.683s 11
17 Michael Scott Victory Motor Racing 1m05.175s 1m07.259s 14
18 Dennis Olsen M2 Competition 1m06.307s 1m07.124s 13

Times in bold denote quickest times of the day for given driver.
Times in italics denote quickest times in a given session.