Whanganui driver Tristan Teki wins back-to-back Touring Car Masters Trophy Races

Whanganui racecar driver Tristan Teki is now a back-to-back champion in the Touring Cars Masters Trophy Race. Photo / Fin Ocheduszko Brown

Whanganui driver Tristan Teki has surprised himself with another Touring Car Masters Trophy Race victory; this time at the Sandown 500.

Teki ended up bringing home five trophies from the event; most notably, the Trophy Race victory, second overall in the round and third overall in the Trans-Tasman Series.

Teki competed at his first Sandown 500, held in Melbourne, on November 14-16.

Other Whanganui drivers Grant and Adrian Rivers and Michael Eden also ticked off their first experience with competing at the event.

Teki’s five trophies at Sandown 500 bring his total trophy haul in the last two events to seven, after an impressive showing at the Bathurst 1000, where he became the first overseas Trophy Race winner.

Teki said the track suited his 1969 Chevrolet Camaro called Batmobile more than at Bathurst because it was “a real horsepower track with a couple of big straights”, which allowed him to put his foot down.

Whanganui driver Tristan Teki, and his 1969 Chevrolet Camaro called Batmobile, won the Sandown 500 Touring Cars Masters Trophy Race in Melbourne, from November 14 to 16. Photo / Supplied

In the trophy race, Teki climbed 16 places to emerge victorious and claim back-to-back Trophy Race titles.

“That was a bit unexpected. We had another good run through and got from 17th to first pretty quickly so that way we were driving off into the sunset,” he said.

Teki crossed the line with a total time of 17:31.689, just over half a second ahead of second-placed Australian driver Dave Casey.

“It’s always fun going through that much traffic, there’s no such thing as a racing line, you take any gap there is - you just give it a shot,” Teki said.

In the Trophy Race, Eden and Rivers were the sixth and ninth-placed New Zealanders, respectively.

Eden and Rivers placed 19th and 23rd overall.

The Trans-Tasman Series placings are taken from Bathurst and Sandown.

Teki finished third, behind Angus Fogg and Steve Johnson.

“It was pretty cool to be on the old podium with two of the legends,” Teki said.

Teki has switched his focus to reality and said the next event he may partake in will be the NAPA Central Muscle Cars “Thunder Down Under”, in Timaru, from January 31 to February 1.

“After living like a rockstar for a month, I’ve been pretty out of it but you can’t keep up with that sort of lifestyle so I need to get back to work,” he said.

Fin Ocheduszko Brown is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.