Good on you Toyota, you’ve done it again

| Photographer Credit: Bruce Jenkins

Thank goodness for Toyota GAZOO Racing New Zealand. If it wasn’t for their commitment, come hell or high water, then a successful NZ summer racing series could be in serious doubt.

With driver announcements for the 2020 Castrol Toyota Racing Series progressively being drip-fed to all, it is almost certain that we will have a full grid of 20 cars at the opening round 17-19 January at Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell. It is the start of a five-consecutive weekend format which takes in Teretonga Park in Invercargill, Hampton Downs in the north Waikato, Pukekohe Park in Auckland and the NZ Grand Prix meeting at Circuit Chris Amon Manfeild in Feilding.

As a support category we have the Best Bars Toyota 86 Championship with their second round also at Highlands followed by a a second South Island round a week later in Invercargill. They too have a great size field with 17 cars qualifying at their first round at Pukekohe Park at the end of November.

Backing up these two South Island rounds we will get to see two rounds of the South Island Formula 1600 Championship with an expected 35 -40 entries at both Highlands and Teretonga. This too should give fans some great racing over both weekends in January.

South Island Formula 1600 Championship, Race 1 start, Wigram Cup Nov 2019 (Photo: Terry Marshall/Euan Cameron Photography)

You’ve got to feel sorry for the summer series organisers Speed Works. It is a juggling act for the team as they put the show together.

First there was the pragmatic announcement that the BNT V8s wouldn’t come south. With too small a field this season and the competitors based largely in the north, they decided that money was better not spent on travel and accommodation to the South Island. While this is still a New Zealand championship, it will now be regarded as a North Island series only and if it is to continue then its ‘championship’ status has to be questioned.

There doesn’t appear in the regulations the stipulation that a MotorSport NZ championship has to take place on both Islands. The use of ‘national’, referring to championships’ is more jargon that official. However, it does infer that it has taken place across the nation.

Also withdrawing from their announced calendar is the inaugural TCR New Zealand series which was to mirror the TRS season with five quick-fire rounds in the January/February period.

When first announced, it appeared to be very logical without a clash with the Australian Calendar which gets underway at the Australian F1 Grand Prix meeting in Melbourne 12-15

Let’s look at a brief time-line of TCR NZ announcements.

1/ 8 June – Motorsport NZ confirms ANZ Motorsport Group, a sister company to Australian Racing Group, the commercial and promotional rights to the TCR New Zealand Championship – the same group that has the rights to the TCR Australia Series.

2/ 21 June – Grant Smith confirmed as category manager for TCR NZ

3/ 24 July – The Australian Grand Prix Corporation (AGPC) today announced that TCR Australia will host its season opener at the Formula 1 ® Rolex Australian Grand Prix 2020, at the Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit from 12-15 March.

4/ 25 July – TCR NZ calendar announced with a five round quick-fire sprint season that will take place at the same time as the 2020 Toyota Racing Series, over five consecutive weekends. This will be followed later in the year with four endurance rounds. Dates to be confirmed

5/ 6 December – TCR New Zealand announces a revised calendar for the 2020 season, extending the inaugural 2020 championship duration from its original planned five week duration to be held over five months. The new calendar will consist of seven rounds, commencing in the second half of 2020 and will run through until February 2021.

Also we must factor in the announcement in late October that the Australian S5000 Championship (single seater) season would also start at the Australian F1 Grand Prix weekend in Melbourne. Plus the TA2 Muscle Car Series kicking off their season at the opening Supercars rounds, The Superloop Adelaide 500 20-23 February. Both series are owned by the ARG.

Add in the Liqui-Moly Bathurst 12 Hour over the first weekend in February and you have one hectic start to the New Year.

Clearly there just wasn’t going to be the numbers on the TCR NZ grid to go ahead with the original calendar. This raises the question of whether the Australian Racing Group has pulled back on their support for the series that they manage? New Zealand was never going to provide a full grid in the first season. It clearly needed cars and drivers from overseas, specifically Australia, to make up a good proportion of the grid. Does this lead to the question of the ARG over-extending themselves? They too (with the BNT V8s) have made a pragmatic decision given the logistics involved.

The third category that may yet withdraw from the Speed Works Teretonga round is the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship. There has been much conjecture as to whether they will appear on the grid at their third round, the only South Island meeting. It is reported that if it goes ahead, the entry will be very small.

The financial implication for the category is that to appear at the Live on SKY televised meeting will require a substantial entry fee to cover these expenses. The more entries in a category will spread the costs and reduce the fee per competitor.

Heading into the Christmas New Year break we can be confident of some great racing this summer and it has to be ‘hats-off’ to Toyota in recognition of their unwavering support for our domestic racing season.

2019 Castrol Toyota Racing Series – Teretonga Park

Benjamin Carrell is a freelance motorsport writer and currently edits talkmotorsport.co.nz. He writes for a number of Kiwi drivers and motorsport clubs. That's when he's not working in his horticultural day-job or training for the next road or mtb cycle race!

https://talkmotorsport.co.nz

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