Motorsport: Crashes blight TRS action

Multiple collisions kept the safety car busy at Levels. Photo / Geoff Ridder

Mardenborough avoids trouble to take round at Timaru while Munro bags first win

More chaos and carnage ensued at the second round of the Toyota Racing Series in Timaru over the weekend. The opening round of the five-weekend, 15-race TRS championship in Invercargill witnessed a fair amount of crash and bash but Timaru raised it to another level.

Staying out of trouble at 160km/h-plus speeds is key to winning championships and Jann Mardenborough avoided the dramas over the weekend to take the round win and move into second place in the championship behind Estonian Martin Rump with Russian Egor Orudzhev in third.

"The first two races were a bit bad with all the crashes," said Mardenborough. "Staying out of trouble and getting the points is what wins championships. It's great to get the lap record and my first race win in a single-seater and the TRS."

The opening race of the weekend on Saturday, while entertaining for the crowd, was a nightmare for Macauley Jones when Italian Matteo Ferrer fired into turn one way too fast and mounted the Australian's car causing massive damage. Thankfully the driver was okay and made the grid for yesterday's two races.

"It was a bit crazy, but thankfully he's okay," said Macauley's dad Brad, who is also the owner of V8 Supercars' team Brad Jones Racing.

It was Kiwi James Munro's day though, his first win in the TRS series making up for a less than satisfactory weekend in Invercargill.

"I now have the confidence knowing I can do it [win] and hope there'll be more wins soon," said Munro.

The lack of race craft for some drivers continued in race two that saw only five laps of the scheduled 15 at race pace.

The result was in abeyance for a few hours and after a raft of penalties were handed out, Mardenborough was confirmed as the winner with Rump in second and Orudzhev third.

Sense prevailed over youthful exuberance in race three, where racing incidents were at a minimum and good race craft prevailed.

Rump got off to a flyer through a jump-start, and although he took the chequered flag, was relegated to fourth. Andrew Tang was promoted to first with Mardenborough second and Munro third.