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Leitch wins reversed grid race at TRS finale, Armstrong’s lead cut further

by Bethonie Waring
Leitch

Photo: Bruce Jenkins

Brendon Leitch won the penultimate race of the 2018 Toyota Racing Series while Robert Shwartzman and Richard Verschoor further closed the gap to points leader Marcus Armstrong.

Leitch, who claimed his first victory of the season last weekend, started from pole for the partially reversed grid.

He managed a clean get away to keep Clement Novalak behind him, but the Giles Motorsport driver remained on his tail in the opening laps.

Leitch was able to build up a gap to second over the course of the race and finished just ahead of Novalak to claim his second win of the season.

Richard Verschoor completed the podium after passing Robert Shwartzman on the opening lap.

Championship leader Marcus Armstrong had just missed out on the reverse grid draw, starting fifth, where he finished race one.

He was unable to make up a position on the opening lap, but did try to challenge Shwartzman for fourth.

Shwartzman put up a good defence to keep his team-mate behind him and Armstrong fell away as he turned to defending against Juan Manuel Correa.

Armstrong managed to shake off Correa in the second half of the race to finish fifth, maintaining his lead of the championship going into the final round of the season but by only 10 points over Shwartzman and 23 over Verschoor.

Cameron Das put up a challenge for sixth late in the race, running side by side with Correa on a few occasions. James Pull joined the fight in the closing laps but the order remained unchanged.

Reid Harker and Taylor Cockerton completed the top 10.