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Evans claims New Zealand Motor Cup victory

by Peter Allen

Photo: Bruce Jenkins/Toyota Racing Series

Mitch Evans completed a double victory on his one-off return to the Toyota Racing Series at Hampton Downs, winning the New Zealand Motor Cup feature race.

As he had done in race one, the GP3 champion led from pole position to the chequered flag but was chased again by Alex Lynn, who finished up sixth tenths of a second behind.

Nick Cassidy further strengthened his championship lead following his race two victory by completing the podium in third ahead of chief rival Lucas Auer. The Austrian drove a superb comeback race having started from the pitlane after getting caught up in an opening-lap carnage that brought out the red flags. Cassidy now leads by 32 points going into next weekend’s finale at Manfeild.

Just as in race one, Jann Mardenborough was involved, but this time was the instigator rather than the innocent victim as he ran into debutant Ignazio D’Agosto.

Tanart Sathienthirakul came through to fifth place, benefiting when Andrew Tang slid wide late on as both secured their best TRS results to-date. Nicholas Latifi was another to restart from pitlane but finished up in seventh ahead of Dennis Olsen, Pipo Derani and Steijn Schothorst. The Dutchman had run third for much of the race before slipping back late on.

Felix Serralles and Bruno Bonifacio were amongst those who failed to finish the race

Race three results

Pos Driver Team Time/Gap
1 Mitch Evans Giles Motorsport 20 laps in 28:17.635
2 Alex Lynn M2 Competition +0.491
3 Nick Cassidy M2 Competition +0.518
4 Lucas Auer Giles Motorsport +0.957
5 Tanart Sathienthirakul ETEC Motorsport +1.247
6 Andrew Tang ETEC Motorsport +1.277
7 Nicholas Latifi Giles Motorsport +1.645
8 Dennis Olsen M2 Competition +1.688
9 Pipo Derani Giles Motorsport +1.735
10 Steijn Schothorst M2 Competition +1.775
11 Spike Goddard M2 Competition +1.843
12 Damon Leitch Victory Motor Racing +1.956
13 Michael Scott Victory Motor Racing +2.039
14 Tatiana Calderon ETEC Motorsport +2.072
15 Ignazio D?Agosto Victory Motor Racing +1 lap
16 Felix Serralles Giles Motorsport +10 laps
17 Bruno Bonifacio Giles Motorsport +10 laps
18 Akash Nandy ETEC Motorsport +16 laps
19 Jann Mardenborough ETEC Motorsport +20 laps