Young motor racing star, Mark Russ (Auckland), has completed his first full Toyota Racing Series campaign with two top ten placings in the Series finale at Pukekohe Park Raceway last weekend. Russ started his weekend well by qualifying in 8th place on the starting grid which was his best qualifying effort for some time.

The first race, held on Saturday afternoon, saw the eager rookie driver contest a solid race to cross the finish line in 6th place but was advised he had incurred a time penalty for false start and was relegated to 9th. What did happen was the cars were held on the grid for longer than usual. Mark’s clutch heated up and he started rolling forward. However, battling with several cars throughout the race and gaining two places was a positive result which will not have gone unnoticed.

Sunday morning’s second race was an even better effort as Mark started from 10th place on the grid based on the extremely close lap times from Race 1. This time, however, he made a perfect start to gain two places on the opening lap then battle his way past two more cars to be awarded 6th place at the end of the 16 laps.

The Series finale was a pleasing result for the 20 year old Aucklander who finished the weekend 6th overall on total points for the round. He eventually rounded off his debut season in 13th place for the overall Championship and 3rd place in the Rookie standings. The season has proved to be a tough learning curve but the experience gained has been invaluable, especially now having knowledge of all circuits used in the Series:

“This weekend has been solid for us after a reasonable qualifying and Race 1 went well apart from the adjudged jumped start. We still struggled a little bit with set up as the car was a bit twitchy on the fast corners. Race 2 was good as we had to fight to get past four cars so it was more experience gained” he reflected after the second race.

He went on to explain his thoughts about the immediate future:

“There were some solid performances during the season even though we struggled in the early rounds until allocated a new engine. I would like to come back and have another shot at it next season as I’ve learned so much and know I can do well next year with the knowledge gained. We have been offered drives in other categories. So, we have to sit down and see where our budget is then make some decisions but I will be really happy about doing it all again” he said.

Whatever the outcome of negotiations over the winter months, there is no question that enthusiasm will never be lacking with Mark Russ and his motor racing career. He showed he has the willingness to learn and totally apply himself to the tasks set before him and with the right backing and good technical support could very well be a major star of the 2008 Toyota Racing Series.

Alan Henderson
HH Media