Taylor Cockerton is a man on a mission and heads to the second round of the 2018 Castrol Toyota Racing Series with confidence of finishing on the podium and moving up the points table. It has been a hectic week for the Kiwi driver having to fit in a quick trip to Malaysia for a one-day Audi R8 LMS Cup test before returning home to continue racing.
After a solid opening round in Christchurch last weekend, the Waikato University student currently sits seventh overall in the five consecutive round TRS championship.
“I’m excited to head back to Teretonga,” commented Cockerton. “We had good results there last season in both the wet and dry. We have great car setup at the moment that will work well this weekend. The key continues to be qualifying and getting that right.”
Qualifying in the first round saw Cockerton starting 10th in both race one and three. A solid first race saw Cockerton move up to claim sixth place, giving him the same grid position for the second race. Again, another solid drive saw him finish just off the podium in fourth. The 25-lap feature Lady Wigram Trophy race brought a disappointing 11th place result.
“That was a disappointing end to the weekend. We were on old tyres from race two but overall for (the weekend) we had good speed and we have a good position (7th) in the championship.”
Sunday night Cockerton headed to the Sepang International Circuit, Malaysia, for a one-day test with the KCMG Team in an Audi R8 LMS Cup car as part of the prize for winning the 2017 Formula Masters Championship.
“The test went really well,” Cockerton said. “It’s an amazing car, quite different to the TRS car. The stopping power is incredible and after we put some new tyres on it we set some decent lap times.”
A successful test could offer Cockerton options for continuing his racing in Asia. These include the Blancpain GT Series Asia, a multi-class GT championship predominately catering for GT3 and GT4 cars over six race weekends and the 11 round one-make Audi R8 LMS Cup series.
Now having returned home the focus is back to the Toyota Racing Series and three races this weekend at the southern circuit of Teretonga Park Raceway.
Comments