Robb roars to victory

Hunter Robb saved his best to last to secure a fine win in the feature race of the Toyota 86 Championship at Manfeild Circuit Chris Amon.

It was the weekend’s first victory for the young racer and was enough to seal the round win after a solid showing on the 3.03km Manawatu track.

With a grid formed from the best lap times from the first two races, it was Tom Bewley who sat on pole on January 28 in the soaking rain, and it was Bewley who made the best start as the field slithered away from the lights.

John Penny’s run at the front came to an end when he spun out of contention on the second lap. Moments later, Robb made a pass for the lead. Bewley repassed but had to redress as the safety-car flag came out for Summer Rintoule, who had a big off on lap three.

With the rain stopped but the track still very damp, the safety car pulled in at the end of lap seven. It was Robb who had control of the restart and he made the best getaway to assume the lead.

As the laps counted down, Bewley began to nibble away at his lead, reducing it to about half a second and looking likely to challenge. 

An impatient Bewley almost went off attempting a late race pass on the leader on the last lap, but Robb came home for a well-deserved win ahead of Bewley and Justin Allen. 

In the morning, Allen hung on to win his first race of the championship in the weekend’s second race.

He made the most of a front-row start in the reverse top-10 format grid and took the lead during a busy first lap. He then got his head down and for the first half of the race pulled away from a great battle behind. 

As the race wore on, William Exton emerged from the fight behind to gain dramatically on the leader in the last couple of laps, but Allen edged home by just two-tenths.

Penny also took his first overall victory of the season in race one after Bewley was docked five seconds for a jumped start.

After 10 laps, Penny came home just over two seconds in arrears of Bewley. That was enough to secure him the win. Bewley’s time penalty dropped him to fourth leaving the top three as Penny, Robb and Rooney.