2010 Toyota Racing Series (Round 1, Race 2)

After picking up a solid victory in the opening race of the season, 15-year-old Mitch Evans looks to notch up a second success and is helped greatly by starting on pole. Once again Sten Pentus starts from 2nd place with Daniel Jilesen, Earl Bamber, Andrew Waite and Lucas Foresti occupying the positions behind.

As the lights go out Evans begins the 16 lap race well and quickly pulls out a gap on Pentus who maintains his second position. The action takes place behind the leaders though as a three way battle for third place sees the experienced Bamber drop behind Waite, who looks to pressure for the next position. It doesn't last long for Waite as Bamber forces his way through and retakes his 4th place - behind these three, Foresti sits patiently as Waite begins to fall in his clutches. Unfortunately it looks as if Foresti once again has his car set up for the turns as every time he gets onto the start/finish straight, Waite pulls away from the Brazilian.

Webling - the only retiree from the first race - takes the fast turn 1 with far too much gusto and nearly loses the back end on the first part of the exit. An excellent save amidst a flurry of hands in the cockpit inside his Triple X Motorsport machine. Webling isn't the only driver to nearly lose it as on the 5th lap, race leader Mitch Evans get the entry into the second part of Castrol completely wrong and puts his left-side set of wheels off onto the dirt. Pentus is not quite close enough to take advantage of the error, but Evans now has clean his tyres off as well as facing more pressure from behind.
Nathan Morcom in the ETEC Motorsport machine spins it a lap later and loses the engine momentarily. It takes a moment for nerves to gather themselves and the New Zealand driver turns his car around and gets back on track. It is odd that there have been three spins in two laps - despite that trickiness of the cars, the conditions are absolutely perfect with dry, hot conditions for the whole weekend therefore making these errors stand out a little more.

Half way through the race and down near the back Jamie McNee goes around the outside of Webling through turn 1 - an excellent move for 9th place, but he's not the only one to try as Bamber attempts a similar move on Waite. A determined effort, but it is not enough and Waite holds station for the moment.

As the race tails off into its final laps, gaps appear between the cars as drivers between to settle into a steady pace, but on the twelfth lap, Evans appears to concentration again as for the second time in the race he goes wide and puts wheels on the grass - luckily Pentus is again not close enough to take the lead.

However, Evans luck runs out at the end of lap 15 as his engine cuts out on the exit of the final corner and this time Pentus does take the lead. Evans gets back up to speed, but Pentus has too much of an advantage and Evans too little time to make a difference.

The victory goes to the Estonian driver in a race that started well, but dried up in the second half of the even; however even Pentus must realise that he lucked into this victory following a number of errors by the young Evans. For the next event, the top six finishers in this race swap around giving 6th place Bamber the pole position and Pentus 6th place on the grid.

Race Quality: 3.5 out of 5

Source Quality: B+ (TV Rip, but lots of compression)

(February 2010)