Motorsport: Weather holds for Cassidy win

Nick Cassidy leads Damon Leitch at Timaru yesterday. Photo / SportProMedia

Drivers and fans were relieved the weather gods held the rain back for round four of the Premier MotorSport New Zealand series, and round two of the Toyota Racing Series, at Timaru International Motor Raceway this weekend.

Last weekend, the drivers had to deal with rain and winds at Teretonga.

For the first time since they arrived in New Zealand, the 15 international drivers in the Toyota Racing Series were able to race in the dry and it allowed a brace of Kiwi drivers to keep the visitors at bay.

Nick Cassidy took line honours from series leader Damon Leitch, with Teretonga race one winner Brit Josh Hill third.

"After missing out on the win at Teretonga, we needed to come back strong and we did," said Cassidy. "We were having a good battle and it's good to get the monkey off my back and get the first win."

When the lights went out, the cars streamed past a stalled Bruno Bonifacio and Leitch grabbed the lead from Cassidy, who got past the Invercargill teenager on lap four and was never headed. Hill made steady progress early on and was soon in touch with the leading duo but was unable to make any headway - settling for his second podium of the series.

The continuing BNT NZV8 battle royale between series leader Angus Fogg and the chasing trio of Jason Bargwanna, Tim Edgell and find of the series Martin Short continued unabated. Fogg dominated the top 10 shootout from Australian V8 Supercars veteran Bargwanna, with Edgell and Short rounding out the front two rows of the grid.

Making the most of the conditions, Bargwanna took off like a scalded cat but Fogg soon had the measure of him and was past by lap two. He took control of the race, setting a new lap record in the process, leaving Bargwanna, Short and Edgell to fight for the scraps.

"We've got data from the past six or seven years from here [Timaru]," said Fogg. "We did real good here last year so we didn't play with things much. The car was good enough to have a crack at the lap record and do it.

Other winners on the day were AJ Lauder in the Suzuki Swifts, Geoffrey Spencer in the V8 Utes, Chris Dunn in the Production GT, Cameron Jones in the Sports GT and Henry Thomas-Kircher in the Formula Fords. All classes are again in action today, with two races for the TRS and BNT V8s.