Motorsport: Randle pounces on Verschoor's misfortune

Cars line up on the grid at the start of Sunday's feature race. Photo / Matthew Hansen

Australian Thomas Randle cruised to the chequered flag as his championship rivals ran into drama in an incident-filled Toyota Racing Series race at Hampton Downs on Sunday.

The 20-year-old became the first Australian to win the New Zealand Motor Cup since Warwick Brown in 1975 as he led from start to finish in the weekend's feature race.

Austrian Ferdinand Habsburg finished second and Jehan Daruvala third but championship leader Richard Verschoor and New Zealander Marcus Armstrong were caught up in incidents.

Habsburg, last year's New Zealand Grand Prix champion, made a great start from the third row of the grid to jump a couple of cars including that of series leader Verschoor.

American driver Keyvan Andres and Ameya Vaidyanathan were involved in a collision that resulted in both cars going off the track on lap two and prompted a safety car intervention.

From the re-start Verschoor and leading Kiwi Armstrong collided, which ended the Kiwi's day and forced the Dutchman into the pits to change a nose cone and fix damaged steering. He rejoined at the back of the field but immediately started cutting his way through back-markers. He recovered to finish 12th but was hit with a 30 second penalty post race that dropped him back to 16th.

Pedro Piquet blew third place when he ran wide at the hairpin on the last lap and coughed up a spot on the podium.

Pukekohe's Taylor Cockerton was the best of the New Zealanders, finishing seventh.

Southlander Brendon Leitch got caught up in a tangle with American Kory Enders which saw him fall retire from the race and cap what was a disappointing weekend for the 21-year-old.

Verschoor's lead is down to 23 points with Randle now nipping at his heels while Piquet is third in the championship a further 31 points adrift.