TRS rookie Auer has pole, crashes out of Spirit of a Nation Cup
Southland’s Leitch takes early series points lead
Cassidy well pleased with second overall

Hannes van Asseldonk has taken the first major trophy of the 2012 Toyota Racing Series at Teretonga near Invercargill.

Young Austrian driver Lucas Auer had pole, repeating his start position from race one on Saturday. At the race start, he was locked in a tussle for the lead with Jordan King who had started alongside him.

Hannes van Asseldonk and Josh Hill – son of 1996 Formula One World Champion Damon Hill and grandson of World Champion Graham Hill and winner of the Saturday race – were also pushing to break through to the front from the second row. The race had no sooner got under way than Auckland driver Jono Lester, after a third in the Saturday race, speared his car off the track after the race start, landing unhurt in the gravel trap at turn two.

His exit brought out the safety car, and when the circuit was cleared for racing Auer promptly went off and was also out of the race, elevating van Asseldonk to a lead he then set about defending from all comers. King tagged onto the back of van Asseldonk’s car, and Nick Cassidy had forged through from an original start of sixth to be third with a gap back to Bonifacio and Hill.

Auer’s off brought the safety car back out, bunching up the field once more. As the course was cleared for racing Cassidy pushed up to second overall.. The top six were van Asseldonk, Cassidy, Jordan King, Bruno Bonifacio, Josh Hill and Ferrari Driver Academy member Raffaele Marciello, who was an early retirement from Saturday’s race.

Chris Vlok struck problems and came into pit lane, while Bonifacio overtook King for third. Hill and Marciello had tangled and Hill was slowing with a damaged front wing. King also began to lose ground.
Southland’s Damon Leitch, second in Saturday’s race, came through to fourth place ahead of Marciello, with young Indian driver Shahaan Engineer sixth.

The field bunched up once more under the safety car, and heavy sleeting rain now began to fall, drenching first the western part of the track and then the whole circuit. Race officials decided to end the race early on safety grounds, the track now too wet for cars with slick tyres.

So the final top six was van Asseldonk – who scored his first points of the series, an elated Nick Cassidy, Bonifacio, Damon Leitch, Raffaele Marciello and Shahaan Engineer, the youngest racer in the series. First Rookie across the line was Bonifacio in third.

The accumulated points from the two races hands an early series lead to Damon Leitch with one race remaining in the weekend.