More success on world stage for our former racers

2016 TRS champion Lando Norris tops this week’s round up of great drives from CTFROC and Toyota 86 Championship alumni following the weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, but there’s plenty more to shout about than just the McLaren ace’s podium performance.

Norris was one of the pace setters throughout the weekend and was best of the rest in third place behind the Ferrari 1-2 of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc.

Another to shine in F1 in Albert Park was 2020 NZ championship graduate Yuki Tsunoda who put in his best weekend of the season so far in F1, out-qualifying and out-racing teammate Daniel Ricciardo to be a solid top ten contender throughout the weekend.

Melbourne was packed with great drives from our graduates. In the FIA F2 competition both Franco Colapinto and Richard Verschoor bagged top six results with fourth in the sprint race and sixth in the feature race respectively.

There was even more to shout about in the F3 Championship races with 2023 NZ Grand Prix winner Laurens van Hoepen taking an impressive podium in the first race while 2023 champion Charlie Wurz finished fifth in the second race. Christian Mansell also took two tenth place finishes.

Success wasn’t just in the single seaters either, there was lots to shout about in both the Supercar and Porsche races.

In the Porsches Ryder Quinn topped the graduates’ results with a third place, a fifth and a sixth across the weekend. Jackson Walls also took a podium and ran strongly in the top ten throughout the weekend as did while Marco Giltrap and Tom McLennan. Current TR86 racer Lockie Bloxsom also made a solid debut in the category as well.

In a busy weekend for Supercars that saw the drivers compete across four races, 2021 Castrol Toyota Racing Series champ Matthew Payne continued his impressive run with third place finishes in the first and second races, while Richie Stanaway took a seventh and eighth in the third and fourth races. Thomas Randle was on great form in the final race as well, taking a fighting fourth.

Wrapping up a great weekend of motorsport was a fine first round of the Formula Pro Western USA championship at the daunting Thunderhill Raceway in California for 2024 CTRFROC graduate Landon Lim. Racing for Kiwi Motorsport as he did in his recent NZ campaignb, Landon clean sweeped the weekend winning all the races and taking the fastest laps. A great start for his 2024.