Too quick by half, a tad hungry and the Corner That Eats Cars has another victim. It’s not overstating the case to say that Liam Lawson’s crash out of Sunday’s feature race marked a subtle shift in the TRS championship story. Half way through the championship is not the place to start racking up DNFs.
We had arrived at the NZ Motor Cup feature race with the most intriguing points table in ages.
Courtesy of a searing run in the morning’s partial reverse grid race, Pukekohe’s Liam Lawson held a one point championship lead going into the feature. Problem with that? He was P3 for the start, while arch rival Marcus Armstrong had pole with Lucas Auer alongside him. All three of them had gone under the one minute benchmark, though none approached lap record pace and a new record looked unlikely. We had 59.780 for Armstrong, 59.853 for Auer and 59.882 for Lawson. A tenth of a second between all three.
In the event, nobody on that 16 car grid was thinking about lap records. Liam wants the title, Marcus wants the title, Lucas wants race wins and points but even after a third placing in Sunday morning’s race it’s fair to say the title would be an outside chance for him. Raoul Hyman looked handy, as did Cameron Das who had a smashing start to the weekend but showed true grit refocussing on the job at hand.
But to the afternoon’s feature race itself. Marcus shot away into turn one with a perfect start, one of his best. He says these cars are not difficult to drive, similar to the cars he has just jumped out of, just some subtle stand-outs in aero and mechanical grip and a different power profile. The tyres are broadly similar to an F3 tyre – which is really the points of TRS isn’t it? They are not as technical to set up because there are less adjustments to be made.
Liam was all over Lucas, itching to get past and attack Marcus. No deal. Dev Gore spun all on his own at the hairpin, then got going dead last.
Then out came the yellow – Dev Gore had spun again, this time beaching his car. The field collected behind the safety car. Marcus has done a lot of restarts under the safety car and his experience showed. He bunched the cars up in the final turn, holding them while the safety car motored off, and then slowly allowed speed to build before nailing the throttle as the uphill right hander started to bite into the car’s suspension travel, trying to push it off line. If you haven’t heard a full field of TRS cars go open-throat throttle on that uphill you have missed a raw and spine-tingling treat.
By the time the field hit the front straight Marcus had a car length or more over Auer, and Lawson was all over the rear of the Remus car, trying to get clear (again) and attack Marcus. This time they touched in turn one, and it was all over for Liam, pitched into the kitty litter by the pent-up forces released when two open-wheelers rub tyres. Auer went off momentarily but regained the tarmac without incident. The lights went out on the safety car and we were treated to another inch-perfect restart. Marcus was once more rebuilding his lead, able to dictate race pace at will. Auer behind him was having problems with the car’s throttle sensor and had to let Artem Petrov past. A trip into pit lane is an admission that any aspiration of a good finish is gone – and that is what happened for Lucas, who just can’t seem to catch a decent break this year.
That was the race pretty much run. Marcus Armstrong put his name on New Zealand’s oldest motor racing trophy, Artem scored some tasty points and Cameron Das redeemed his weekend with third. Patriotic sub-theme: all three New Zealanders are in the top five – top four actually. Brendon Leitch brought the ITM car home in P4 to bank valuable points.
But the weekend belongs to Marcus, notwithstanding Liam’s win in the Sunday morning reverse grid race. Two crashes this weekend were two more than Liam needed, and the second one robbed him of the championship lead he held coming into the afternoon.
With the demons of 2018 TRS all but erased and 204 points in his pocket, Marcus leads Liam by a whacking 34 points and is sounding positively chummy about the domestic premier series.
He loves Teretonga (and why not, it’s THE driver’s circuit) and he has special reason to like the ‘eurocircuits’ – Hampton Downs and Taupo. The former has delivered him the points lead in a whirlwind of excellent on-track action; the latter is prized for the challenge of its infield turns and for the outbraking at the end of the 800 metre front(eastern) straight. And of course Manfeild is unique. Banked corners, surface changes, crosswinds, looong corners with no visible apex. Massive car-wrecking kerbs to stay away from or bounce over. Manfield is the joker in the pack, the wild card that makes the championship hard to predict even in years when it seems predictable.
Now Marcus has regained the lead and – as he himself predicted – the faster, more European style circuits have levelled the playing field. Not just for him but also for Das, Hyman, Auer, Petrov. Now, the championship story is a five or six way battle for the title. And we the punters are enriched by that.
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