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RICHARD VERSCHOOR WINS AT TERETONGA

Richard Verschoor won the opening race at Teretonga - Photo: Bruce Jenkins

By Bruce Williams

Richard Verschoor won the opening race at Teretonga - Photo: Bruce Jenkins

Richard Verschoor won the opening race at Teretonga – Photo: Bruce Jenkins

Richard Verschoor has started his fightback in the Castrol Toyota Racing Series by winning this afternoon’s opening race at the second round at Teretonga, Invercargill.

The 17 year old Dutch teenager, who won the opening racing of the series dropped to third on the points table after failing to finish the Lady Wigram Trophy race at Ruapuna last Sunday.

“I’ve just got to focus on finishing in front of the others,” said Verschoor. “I can’t change what happened with a technical failure last weekend.”

Verschoor, who started from the outside of the front row of the grid got the jump on pole position man Clement Novalak, making just his fourth standing start of his career.

By the time Novalak exited the first corner he was fourth behind Verschoor, 18 year old Russian Robert Shwartzman and Christchurch’s Marcus Armstrong who won twice at Ruapuna.

The four completed the 20 laps nose to tail with no change in positions, but the front three pushed each other to ever faster lap times in their efforts to unsettle one another and find a way past.

Initially, Verschoor got away, but then ran slightly wide out of one corner and the gaps closed up.

“I wanted to save my tyres at the finish,” said Verschoor, who took a narrow win.

Shwartzman and Armstrong both made good starts off the second row of the grid to complete the lockout of the top three places in the same order they finished the first race at Ruapuna.

Novalak had just as much track speed and once he gets his starts dialled in, will become a real threat. Behind him English 17 year old James Pull finished fifth with Florida based Ecuadorian Jean Manuel Correa sixth.

Armstrong will start tomorrow race from pole position, with Novalak alongside him and Shwartzman and Verschoor on the second row of the grid.

Armstrong holds a nine-point lead in the series, with Verschoor another 42 points back.

Castrol Toyota Racing Series – Round 2 Teretonga – Race 1 Result

1 – Richard Verschoor (Netherlands)
2 – Robert Shwartzman (Russia)
3 – Marcus Armstrong (Christchurch)
4 – Clement Novalak (England)
5 – James Pull (England)
6 – Jean-Manuel Correa (USA)
7 – Brendon Leitch (Invercargill)
8 – Reid Harker (Albany)
9 – Cameron Das (USA)
10 – Calvin Ming (Guyana)

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