Templeton in form at Hampton Downs Mazda Series round

Mac Templeton of Prebbleton in Canterbury continued his good form at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park when he qualified fastest and won the first race of Round 4 of the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing North Island Series at the venue in North Waikato on Saturday.

Templeton had taken his first ever race win in the series during Round 3 at the circuit in January before adding another later that weekend to give him the round win. Adding the icing to the cake on that occasion he also set a new lap record of 1 minute 50.721 seconds.

***Mac Templeton of Prebbleton in Canterbury, winner of the RaceTech Pole Award with the fastest time in qualifying – Photo Geoff Ridder***

The young Cantabrian picked up where he left off when the series returned for the first race of Round 4 today. He set the fastest lap in qualifying to take the RaceTech Pole Award, heading off Arthur Broughan of Tuamarina near Blenheim.

Broughan has returned to the series this weekend to gain valuable track time. He was just .306 of a second behind Templeton with Callum Pratt of Auckland third. Another Aucklander Sam Dashfield was fourth ahead of 2017/18 New Zealand and North Island Champion Andrew Jackson with Karl Gaines and Stuart Lawton next with the top seven all within one second of the pole time.

Aucklanders Steve Brown, Elton Wichman and Steven Spear completed the top ten.

***Karl Gaines of Auckland leads Stuart Lawton of Paraparaumu – Photo Geoff Ridder***

In the ten lap race later in the day, the first of three for the weekend, Templeton and Broughan had a huge battle at the front with Broughan briefly grabbing the lead early in the race before Templeton regained it. There was never much between them but Templeton crossed the line in front, .306 of a second ahead of Broughan.

Pratt and Dashfield had held station in third and fourth respectively throughout the race and finished in that order while Aucklander Jackson, in a rare appearance in the series, came home fifth after passing fellow Aucklander Karl Gaines late in the race.

Gaines finished sixth and was followed home by Stuart Lawton of Paraparaumu while Aucklanders Wichman, Brown and Alex Canty rounded out the top ten.

Tomorrow (Sunday) the top ten finishers in today’s race line up in reverse order on the grid for a twelve-lap race at 9.40am before the final race of the round from a grid based on weekend points to that stage is raced over 10 laps later in the day at 2.00pm.