Kiwi racing driver Taylor Cockerton this week heads to the Zhuhai International Circuit in China with high expectations for the third round of the 2017 Formula Masters Series. Located at Jin Ding town, Zhuhai City, in the Guangdong Province, drivers and teams will face three races over the weekend as the series reaches the half way mark for the season.
“My goal is to win this round,” commented Cockerton. “I think we can take the challenge to the three drivers in front of me. They are all in good form at the moment, but that’s the target we need to set.”
Having achieved three second places at the second round held at the Sepang International Circuit in Malaysia, Cockerton is now fourth overall on the points table, just 21 points behind leader Daniel Lu.
“It’s not a complicated track (Zhuhai), similar to those back in NZ and could be compared with Manfeild. It will be quite different to the first two rounds that we had at Sepang and I feel it will suit my style of driving.”
“We’re fourth on the points table with only 10 points separating second to fourth and I’m very much in the hunt.”
Drivers face a similar qualifying schedule to the Toyota Racing Series with two qualifying sessions on Saturday morning, determining grid positions for races one and three. Race two grid positions are determined by lap times in race one.
Behind leader Daniel Lu is James Yu who took his maiden victory at the second round in Malaysia. At the round, Yu went on to win three of the four races, emphasising the need to finish races on the podium and gain points.
“While I won a race in the first round, we also had a dnf (did-not-finish) at that weekend and that has hurt us points wise,” commented Cockerton. “We have to improve our qualifying performance and this is part of the weekend we are targeting.”
“Unfortunately the gearbox issues in the last round from sensor failures hurt our practice and qualifying. We were unable to do any new tyre runs while the others did. This put us on the back foot. Regardless, it is still something I really need to target.”
Cockerton heads to China having completed a successful testing session at the Ruapuna track in Christchurch with local race engineer Andy Neale. “That was a really good day in the Formula Renault and I fell sharp so it keeps me confident.”
Drivers Points Table after 2/5 rounds (Top 5)
Driver, Team, points
1/ Daniel Lu Absolute Racing 106 points
2/ James Yu Absolute Racing 95 points
3/ Daniel Frost Eurasia Motorsport 90 points
4/ Taylor Cockerton Cebu Pacific air by Pinnacle Motorsport 85 points
5/ Arvin Esmaeili Absolute Racing 44 points
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