Mitchell weekend’s third winner
Tayler Mitchell became the third winner of the weekend at Taupo by taking out the final race of the second round of the Toyota 86 Trophy Series.
Mitchell, winner of the CareVets Scholarship, started second on the grid behind two-time race winner this season Toby Elmiger, but was ahead at the end of the first lap.
Seven laps later they were only separated by less than two-tenths of a second with Elmiger unable to topple Mitchell, pictured above leading them field, from the top spot.
It was classic Toyota 86 racing with the two protagonists jousting throughout. They were side by side on the final lap from turn seven to the chequered flag in one of the best moments so far in the series’ short history.
Nathan Grammer continued his strong weekend with another trip to the podium, while just behind him Mitch Vye continued his improvement with fourth and a personal best.
Intriguingly, the two protagonists of the weekend’s final race – Elmiger and Mitchell – left Taupo equal on points at the top of the table, with Grammer and Scoles still well within striking distance halfway through. Scoles leads the points for Toyota 86 rookies.
Meanwhile, Nieko Scoles grabbed his first win in the 2026 series by becoming the fourth driver in five races to win in the meeting’s second race on June 21.
With the drivers switching to Taupo’s longer and more familiar track for Sunday’s action, it meant another practice session to acclimatise and another qualifying session to determine the grid.
Grammer made the most of challenging wet conditions to go fastest ahead of Scoles. At the lights, it was the latter who made the best getaway and slotted into a lead at the first turn from which he never looked back.
Grammer made a poor start and fell back into the pack. He recovered quickly though and was back up to third by the end of the first lap. He fought his way back past Boswell early on to take second but couldn’t fend off Riley, who went through on lap seven.
At the flag, Boswell finished just over two-and-a-half seconds behind the winner with Grammer a frustrated third.
The latter was penalised post-race for contact and dropped back to seventh. Elmiger worked his way up from his lowly grid position to a fighting fourth at the flag.
An eventful and closely fought race saw Elmiger take his second trophy win after a dominant drive around Taupo’s shorter national layout on Saturday.
He assumed control from the start and led throughout but was never able to shake off pole-position holder Mitchell, who finished just over four-tenths down on the winner after 14 laps.
A great start by Mark Mallard saw him jump from the third row to be in third place at the end of the first lap, but he couldn’t hold off a charging Boswell in the closing stages and it was Boswell who completed the podium.
In the early stages, leaders Elmiger and Mitchell traded fastest lap times as they edged out a small lead ahead of Mallard, who had his mirrors full of Scoles.
Mallard responded well to pressure from the youngster and over the fourth and fifth lap was able to edge a few tenths ahead of the young gun. Scoles fought back lap after lap to keep the pressure on the experienced Toyota 86 racer ahead.
In the race’s second half, Boswell started his charge with the fastest lap on the seventh to pass Scoles and move into fourth. Boswell’s pace was enough to get him past Mallard for third on lap 10 and continue an eye-catching recovery drive after a poor start to the race.
At the flag it was Elmiger, Mitchell, Boswell, Mallard, Scoles and Grammer. Unfortunately for Mallard, a technical infringement led to a disqualification, elevating Scoles, Grammer, Hill and the rest up one place in the final results.
