Evans claims New Zealand Motor Cup victory

Photo: Bruce Jenkins/Toyota Racing Series

Mitch Evans completed a double victory on his one-off return to the Toyota Racing Series at Hampton Downs, winning the New Zealand Motor Cup feature race.

As he had done in race one, the GP3 champion led from pole position to the chequered flag but was chased again by Alex Lynn, who finished up sixth tenths of a second behind.

Nick Cassidy further strengthened his championship lead following his race two victory by completing the podium in third ahead of chief rival Lucas Auer. The Austrian drove a superb comeback race having started from the pitlane after getting caught up in an opening-lap carnage that brought out the red flags. Cassidy now leads by 32 points going into next weekend’s finale at Manfeild.

Just as in race one, Jann Mardenborough was involved, but this time was the instigator rather than the innocent victim as he ran into debutant Ignazio D’Agosto.

Tanart Sathienthirakul came through to fifth place, benefiting when Andrew Tang slid wide late on as both secured their best TRS results to-date. Nicholas Latifi was another to restart from pitlane but finished up in seventh ahead of Dennis Olsen, Pipo Derani and Steijn Schothorst. The Dutchman had run third for much of the race before slipping back late on.

Felix Serralles and Bruno Bonifacio were amongst those who failed to finish the race

Race three results