Photo: Toyota Racing Series
With the top four from race one reversed, Bruno Bonifacio got to start race two of the Toyota Racing Series round at Taupo from pole – an opportunity he used the most out of, leading the race lights-to-flag.
It wasn’t a complete field trip for the Brazilian though, as Steijn Schothorst, who occupied the front row alongside him, stayed within a second of him for most of the race, with the two of them finishing far ahead of the rest of the pack.
Lucas Auer led the rest of the pack, overtaking championship rival Nick Cassidy with three laps to go. In fifth, Tatiana Calderon recorded her best finish of the season so far.
Dennis Olsen finished sixth on the road, but was handed a time penalty for false start, which demoted him to tenth. As such, Akash Nandy was promoted to sixth, his best finish in the series so far. Damon Leitch inherited seventh after holding off Felix Serralles for most of the race. The time Serralles lost behind Leitch ended up costing him in the end, as he was passed for eventual eighth by Alex Lynn (whose race was derailed after a spin on lap one).
Spike Goddard and Jann Mardenborough (who was forced to start from the pit lane instead of sixth) got ahead of Tanart Sathienthirakul with a couple of laps to go, claiming 11th and 12th. Michael Scott rounded up the cars on the lead lap, as Pipo Derani and Nicholas Latifi finished a lap down. Andrew Tang, who was set to start from 11th, did not take part in the race.
Race 2 results
Pos | Driver | Team | Time/Gap | Laps |
1 | Bruno Bonifacio | Giles Motorsport | 21m18.832s | 15 |
2 | Steijn Schothorst | M2 Competition | +1.116s | 15 |
3 | Lucas Auer | Giles Motorsport | +14.246s | 15 |
4 | Nick Cassidy | M2 Competition | +14.789s | 15 |
5 | Tatiana Calderon | ETEC Motorsport | +15.377s | 15 |
6 | Akash Nandy | ETEC Motorsport | +24.687s | 15 |
7 | Damon Leitch | Victory Motor Racing | +29.439s | 15 |
8 | Alex Lynn | M2 Competition | +29.575s | 15 |
9 | Felix Serralles | Giles Motorsport | +29.976s | 15 |
10 | Dennis Olsen | M2 Competition | +33.070s* | 15 |
11 | Spike Goddard | M2 Competition | +33.297s | 15 |
12 | Jann Mardenborough | ETEC Motorsport | +34.243s | 15 |
13 | Tanart Satienthirakul | ETEC Motorsport | +36.736s | 15 |
14 | Michael Scott | Victory Motor Racing | +37.166s | 15 |
15 | Pipo Derani | Giles Motorsport | +1 lap | 14 |
16 | Nicholas Latifi | Giles Motorsport | +1 lap | 14 |
DNS | Andrew Tang | ETEC Motorsport | DNS | 0 |
* indicates a post-race time penalty