Motorsport: Stroll sticks to plan for trophy win

Sam MacLeod, who races with Giles Motorsport, and is in New Zealand to hone his racecraft, spun out during race three of the Toyota Racing Series in Ruapuna. Photos / Bruce Jenkins

Canadian’s consistency was key to Lady Wigram victory in packed field

Consistency in any sport is the key to success and none more so than motorsport. When a 20-car field is circulating within two seconds of each other the cunning plan is to qualify up front, stay out of trouble, keep on the black stuff and drive within yourself.

Canadian Lance Stroll did all three at the opening round of the Toyota Racing Series last weekend at Ruapuna and has arrived at Teretonga this weekend with the series lead. Stroll showed why the Ferrari Driver Academy has him on their books by winning race one, crossing the line fourth in race two, and winning the prestigious Lady Wigram Trophy in Sunday's feature race.

Consistency also played a role for Indian driver Arjun Maini, who sits second on the points table after finishing second, sixth and second. American Santino Ferrucci rounds out the top three. The other race winner, Brandon Maisano, was a bit hit and miss with a fifth and a DNF.

The New Zealanders in the field struggled over the opening weekend of the 2015 championship with James Munro the best of the four local drivers in 12th after a 13th, 10th and 12th place finish. Munro, along with fellow Kiwis Jamie Conroy and brothers Damon and Brendon Leitch, struggled to get their respective cars where they wanted them to be performance wise.

At times they were pushing a trifle too hard, which definitely was the case with Munro who was closing on race leader Stroll in the feature race until he spun all by himself. The Kiwis are by no means the only drivers coming to grips with the new FT50 and the track conditions. Scot Sam MacLeod has been quick since he first turned a wheel on track, but a little of the red mist descends on the odd occasion.

The 20-year-old has set some of the fastest laps so far in the category and in fact planted his car on pole for the Lady Wigram Trophy race. We'll let him explain what happened when the lights went out.

"I made a huge mistake in race three and obviously am very disappointed," said MacLeod. "That was one of the easier ones to win and I messed up going a bit quick too early. Still I managed to set the fastest lap on a broken rim.

I threw that one away all on my own and no one to blame but myself. I could blame the wind if I wanted to, but there's no point as I did it all on my own."

He arrived in New Zealand with a pretty good pedigree having finished fourth in the German Formula Three Cup last year with van Amersfoort racing. He backed that up with another fourth in the British Formula Three championship racing with Fortec and over the year clinched 14 podiums including seven race wins, five poles and 11 fastest laps.

The British Racing Drivers Club, who has him in their Rising Stars programme, has spotted his undoubted natural pace.

"The main reason I came down here was to get some practice and racing in before my FIA F3 series later this year. To be honest I was a bit surprised how fast these cars are, and it took me a bit to get used to that.

"I'm hoping to get a head start on the others when I get back. There are few of my competitors here and so far I'm doing okay up against them," he said.

MacLeod is racing with Giles Motorsport whose team principal is Stephen Giles, a bloke who has seen a fair amount of motorsport and talent over the year have been a chief mechanic with the Mclaren Formula One team from 2001-2006.

He reckons sending these young pocket rockets out here to contest 16 races over five weekends is the best training ground you can get.

"Sam has been showing some good pace but got caught out by the track and cold tyres in the Lady Wigram race," said Giles. "That's the reason these guys come out here - to learn about things like that and try and improve their chances when they get back to Europe.

"The natural speed for Sam and a lot of the other guys racing is there, it's just a matter of refining it and making them more of a complete package.

"It's all to do with dealing with cold tyres, different tracks and being able to race wheel-to-wheel. They're here to learn race craft and in Sam's case to turn the speed he's got into some good results."

The field has a 15-lap race today followed by another 15-lapper tomorrow morning and the feature 20-lap Spirit of a Nation Cup in the afternoon.

TRS points
1. Lance Stroll204
2. Arjun Maini179
3. Santino Ferrucci145
4. Thomas Randle127
5. Brandon Maisano124
6. Charlie Eastwood121
12. James Munro (NZ)87

TRS calendar
Round 2: January 22-25 at Teretonga Park, Spirit of a Nation
Round 3: January 29-February 1 at Hampton Downs, New Zealand Motor Cup
Round 4: February 5-8 at Taupo Motorsport Park, Denny Hulme Memorial Trophy
Round 5: February 12-15 at Manfeild, New Zealand Grand Prix (plus the Dan Higgins Trophy and Dorothy Smith Memorial Cup)