Now into its tenth season, it seemed as though the Toyota Racing Series was humming! It had the right recipe to attract top international drivers and four well-established teams – Giles Motorsport, M2 Competition, ETEC Motorsport, Victory Motor Racing. These four are still looking after drivers today, even though a couple have changed names or ownership.
2014 was the year that 23-drivers lined up on the grid for the opening round at Teretonga Park in Invercargill. However, two of the drivers, Singaporean Andrew Tang and Kiwi James Munro were with a brand new team, Neale Motorsport.
Andy Neale was not new to TRS having first helped Ben Harford in the 2005 inaugural season. Then stints with Earl Bamber in Formula Ford before running Andy Knight for a couple of TRS seasons then working with ETEC Motorsport with the likes of Scott Pye, Andrew Waite and Richie Stanaway. Neale was (and still is) a bit of a wizard when it comes to running single seaters.
“We jumped in to the 2014 TRS season as a two-car team, continuing relationships that we already had with James (Munro) in Formula Ford and Andrew (Tang) in Europe,” reflects Andy Neale. “Along with the mechanics, we all knew each other. Also working alongside them was Nick Cassidy as a driver coach. It was the people in the team that made the difference.”
While his team was pipped at the post in the teams’ competition by Giles Motorsport, it was Andrew Tang who ultimately won the 2014 drivers’ title. Tang had returned for his second TRS season and at the time wasn’t considered a favourite. In 2013 he had finished 15th overall, barely making it into the top ten in three of 15 races.
“The deal for Andrew (Tang) in 2013 to do TRS was quite late and it was his first experience in Formula cars.
“He then went to Europe and lived with us for some time competing in eight Formula Renault Northern European Cup rounds and doing about 9,000kms of testing. After finishing in Europe, he had a complete rest so went into the 2014 season well rested.
“The change in him was about belief. Once he gained his first podium and then his first race win in TRS, he had the confidence to do it again.”
In 2014, Tang became the first non-Kiwi driver to win the TRS title. It wasn’t until 2019 that a Kiwi would win would win again and that was Liam Lawson.
The icing on the cake for Neale Motorsport was the addition of Nick Cassidy for the final NZ Grand Prix round at Manfeild Park in Feilding. Cassidy had won the TRS title in both 2012 and 2013 as well as twice winning the NZGP. At that final round he didn’t start the first race, finished 18th in the second but more importantly won the feature, the New Zealand Grand Prix for the third consecutive time.
“The FT40 that Toyota used for ten seasons was cutting edge at the time, like the FT60 is now. When it (FT40) was revealed by Toyota at the time, I couldn’t believe how well spec’d it was. Very similar to the Formula Renault 2.0 that was so highly successful across a number of European championships.”
“I remember when we picked up our two cars for the 2014 season from Toyota Racing. We put them both in a trailer and Barry (Thomlinson – Toyota Racing manager) was in his office. He leaned back in his chair and said to me, ‘Remember that you are the Marussia of TRS!’ In other words the small start up team so toe-the-line!
“Well history shows we won the second race of the series and ultimately the drivers’ title and the NZ Grand Prix. Nick’s (Cassidy) father had a Marussia F1 umbrella so we had it up giving shade to Nick for the NZ Grand Prix when he was sitting on the grid in pole position.
“It was a great year. When you are wining it is easy, but it is still about the people.”
Drivers’ Championship Final Points
1/ Andrew Tang 794
2/ Jann Mardenborough 790
3/ Damon Leitch 708
4/ Steijn Schothorst 630
5/ Martin Rump 629
6/ Egor Orudzhev 595
7/ James Munro 587
8/ Denis Korneev 417
9/ Neil Alberico 411
10/ Matevos Isaakyan 410
11/ Levin Amweg 409
12/ Gustavo Lima 405
13/ Jordan Oon 395
14/ Matt Rao 394
15/ Michael Scott 393
16/ Brendon Leitch 366
17/ Ryan Tveter 344
18/ Macauley Jones 340
19/ Robin Hansson 320
20/ Matteo Ferrer 289
21/ Alif Hamdan 240
22/ Martin Kodrić 211
23/ Pedro Piquet 140
24/ Nick Cassidy 0
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