Flawless start leads to win
Harry Townshend resisted immense pressure from rivals to win the second race of round two of the Toyota 86 Trophy Series at Taupo.
With fastest laps from the first race defining grid positions, Ajay Giddy started on pole as he lined up alongside winter-class rival Townshend on the front row.
Trophy Series points leader Lee Zeltwanger was beside Matt Day on the second row, with Corban Sprague and Antal Sabo completing row three.
As the lights went out, Townshend made a flawless getaway by leapfrogging into the lead by the first turn and leaving Giddy to fight off the attentions of the raging pack behind that included Zeltwanger, Sabo, Sprague and Day.
Giddy closed up on Townshend on the straights, but the latter’s daring late braking was enough to keep him ahead lap after lap.
The task seemed a little easier when Giddy fell back into the clutches of Zeltwanger late in the race, but Townshend had his eyes fixed on the prize.
“It was an awesome race,” says Townshend. “I knew I had to get away well and not make any mistakes and still hope I had enough speed to win, but it all came good.”
Behind Townshend, the battle was resolved in favour of Zeltwanger, while Giddy backed up his morning win with another podium. Sprague and Day battled throughout but would finish fourth and fifth.
Series newcomer Sabo rounded off an excellent first weekend in the category with sixth place on June 22.
Giddy’s first 86 win
Giddy converted pole position to his first race win in a Toyota 86 in the weekend’s first race at Taupo, but he didn’t have it all his own way.
He was beaten off the line by series newcomer Sabo, who started alongside him on the front row of the grid.
Sabo made the best start in his RaceLab Academy entry and led confidently around the first lap, but Giddy had him under pressure quickly, Sabo’s lack of race experience showed when he went into turn one too quickly on the defensive line, went wide on the exit and allowed the front runners through.
Giddy never looked back and raced away from a chasing Townshend and Zeltwanger to score maximum points in the winter class for drivers who raced in the main Bridgestone GR 86 Championship. Zeltwanger extended his Trophy class lead with another classy podium result.
Townshend put in a solid drive for second place, resisting pressure from Zeltwanger before edging away by a few lengths in the final couple of laps.
Race victory, however, belonged to Giddy, who remains not only the youngest driver in Toyota 86 racing in New Zealand and the youngest to win a race, but also one of the country’s youngest and most promising rising stars.
He says: “It’s great to get the first win and after Antal made his mistake it was just a question of me not making any either. The car was very good though.”
Sabo showed plenty of speed but a similar mistake at turn one later in the race pushed him back to sixth in the overall results behind CareVets Scholarship racer Sprague and Dayle ITM driver Day.
