Close competition and rivalry are not without drama and the 15th running of the Castrol Toyota Racing Series had plenty of both. It had been six years since the last Kiwi, Nick Cassidy, won the title and in 2019 we had two local drivers’ fighting for overall victory.
Christchurch’s Marcus Armstrong was returning for his third crack at the title while rookie Pukekohe driver Liam Lawson was determined to win in his first season. Immediately he showed his intentions at the opening round at the Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell winning the opening race on Saturday afternoon and then the main feature race on Sunday, the Dorothy Smith Memorial Trophy.
The five consecutive round series got underway 12-13 January 2019 in Central Otago before heading to Teretonga Park in Southland, Hampton Downs in the north Waikato, the Bruce McLaren Motorpsort Park in Taupo and then the finale NZ Grand Prix meeting at Manfeild circuit Chris Amon in Feilding.
Armstrong and Lawson were to share five race wins each with the remaining five race winds shared between Southland’s Brendon Leitch, Austrian Lucas Auer, Russian Artem Petrov, Belgium Esteban Muth and US driver Cameron Das.
In the end Lawson and Armstrong were head and shoulders above the rest of the 16-car field with the former winning by just ten-points.
Looking at the numbers, Lawson finished on the podium 11/15 times compared to Armstrong’s 10/15. Both had one race where they claimed no points either from retirement or non-classification.
It was to come down to the controversial final NZ Grand Prix race which was peppered by Safety Cars, race stoppages and penalties. It was a jubilant Lawson who emerged through it all to win the GP and the overall title.
Crossing the line first was a devastated Marcus Armstrong who was given a five second penalty for a move on Lawson during the race which many disagreed with. Lawson had established himself in second place late in the race after the third restart. By this time Armstrong new of the penalty and although he set a series of fast laps in order to mitigate the five seconds it was to no avail.
“It was a weird race,” Lawson commented at the time. “I had already made the move I needed to secure the championship when I heard about Marcus’s penalty on the radio. I was racing with the championship in mind so to end up winning the Grand Prix is very special. ….. It’s very special. I have enjoyed racing with Marcus and although there’s a rivalry on track, we’ve become friends during the series and I can understand how disappointed he was after the race. It’s been a great championship, however, and he’s been a huge part of that.”
Only eight cars finished the Grand Prix after the most incident-packed race of the 15 race championship.
2019 Toyota Racing Series Overall Points
1/ Liam Lawson 356
2/ Marcus Armstrong 346
3/ Lucas Auer 270
4/ Raoul Hyman 270
5/ Esteban Muth 258
6/ Brendon Leitch 245
7/ Cameron Das 205
8/ Calan Williams 183
9/ Artem Petrov 181
10/ Kazuto Kotaka 176
11/ Petr Ptáček 123
12/ Jackson Walls 110
13/ Dev Gore 109
14/ Thomas Smith 101
15/ Parker Locke 100
16/ Petru Florescu 98
17/ Ken Smith 27
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