Palmerston North racer Sam MacNeill took his first pole position of
the current Toyota Racing Series yesterday, and will start today's race alongside series leader Mitch Cunningham
Auckland-based Cunningham took pole for the second race and with fastest
time of the day also starts from pole for the feature raceon Sunday, the Denny Hulme Memorial Cup.
Cunningham leads the overall series points race and has a narrow lead in
the three-round "series within a series" for the TRS International Trophy.
In the first qualifying session, MacNeill topped an on-form Cunningham by just .037sec; posting a 1:25.973 in his last lap just as Cunningham put in his fastest lap of the session, a 1:26.010.
Karcher-backed MacNeill was the only driver to go inside the 1:25 bracket in that session.
Behind them young British driver Will Stevens also put in his best time on the final timed lap of the session, a 1:26.117 that was good enough to secure third ahead of Australian Scott Pye on 1:26.316.
In the second session, Mitch Cunningham was clearly fastest, posting a
late-session 1:25.363. Will Stevens improved to second fastest in this
session with 1:25.485 while Sam MacNeill was third on 1:25.573.
The grid for the feature race is decided by each racer's fastest time
across both sessions. The whole field went faster in the second session, meaning the Denny Hulme Memorial Cup grid will start with Cunningham and Stevens, then shift to a second row of MacNeill and Pye and a third row of William Buller (UK) and Michael Burdett.
