77 replies to this topic

[balage06]

2020 will be the sixteenth running of the Toyota Racing Series, the premier open-wheel category in New Zealand. From this season, the championship will adopt the regional F3 regulations with the introduction of the new Tatuus FT-60 model. It is identical to the T-318 chassis used in the Asian and European regional championships and also W-Series and Formula Renault Eurocup, but equipped with a 1.8-litre Toyota engine producing 270bhp.

 

 

Calendar

 

The tight schedule and points system mean consistency will be key as always.

 

Round 1 - Highlands Motorsport Park - 17-19 January

Round 2 - Teretonga Park - 24-26 January

Round 3 - Hampton Downs Motorsport Park - 31 January-2 February

Round 4 - Pukekohe Park Raceway - 7-9 February

Round 5 - Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon - 14-16 February

 

Teams and Drivers

 

Reigning champion Liam Lawson will be back home to defend his title, but he will face strong competition from fellow FIA F3 and Red Bull junior driver Yuki Tsunoda. Kiwi female racer Chelsea Herbert will also drive in the series, the 21-year-old touring car driver will be the fifth female to race in TRS since its inception in 2005.

 

M2 Competition

#1 Liam Lawson

#6 Ido Cohen

#17 Igor Fraga

#21 Emilien Denner

#33 Yuki Tsunoda

#99 Rui Andrade

 

Giles Motorsport

#4 Henning Enqvist

#26 Gregoire Saucy

#44 Lirim Zendeli

#49 Ken Smith (round 5 only)

#62 Chelsea Herbert

 

Kiwi Motorsport

#5 Spike Kohlbecker

#7 Axel Gnos

#13 Tijmen van der Helm (round 3-5 only)

#16 Amaury Cordeel

#32 Jose Blanco-Chock (round 1-2 only)

#43 Franco Colapinto

 

MTEC Motorsport

#9 - Petr Ptacek

#10 Oliver Rasmussen

#11 Jackson Walls

#23 Caio Collet

#88 Lucas Petersson

Edited by balage06, 14 January 2020 - 13:49.

[Vielleicht]

Has anything come or may yet come from Marta Garcia announcing an intent to race in the TRS this year? Still possible or gone cold?

[JBJ]

Looks like Lawson vs Tsunoda to me

[balage06]

Has anything come or may yet come from Marta Garcia announcing an intent to race in the TRS this year? Still possible or gone cold?

 

I was about to mention this in the OP, but I couldn't find anything yet, it seems she had a seat fitting in FA Racing's Eurocup car a few weeks ago, but without any given context.

[MikeV1987]

Igor Fraga is a sim racer, mainly on Gran Turismo Sport. He won nations cup in 18 and manufacturers this year.

Can’t wait to see how he does in this series, he’s pretty good in a real car too.

Edited by MikeV1987, 24 December 2019 - 15:21.

[William Hunt]

Igor Fraga is a sim racer, mainly on Gran Turismo Sport. He won nations cup in 18 and manufacturers this year.

Can’t wait to see how he does in this series, he’s pretty good in a real car too.

 

Fraga started in cars, he even did 3 years of Brazilian Formula 3, before moving to sim racing and then going back to 'real cars' (or combining it), he's not new to cars

[OvDrone]

Cheers on the OP, Balage. Weird to see Lawson back, but understandable I guess. Cool rostrum so far.

 

Marta Garcia?! What?! please make this happen, please oh please

[BRG]

Weird to see Lawson back, but understandable I guess. 

Not really.  He is a Kiwi, it is the off-season when he is at home and this is the last distant echo of the Tasman Series.  He won't even be 18yo until half way through the series, so it is not as if he is frittering his time away.  It keeps him race honed for the proper 2020 season.  The downside is that he MUST dominate the series against that sort of opposition if he isn't to look a bit Ticktum.

[Tufty]

Never heard of this series until right now, but I'm generally expanding the number of championships I watch. Are these races available on YouTube?

[balage06]

Never heard of this series until right now, but I'm generally expanding the number of championships I watch. Are these races available on YouTube?

 

Last year, the races were streamed on their official YT channel, maybe it's worth a look, because the final championship battle between Armstrong and Lawson was breathtaking.

[balage06]

Renault junior Caio Collet joins MTEC in the #23 car

[balage06]

British Formula Ford driver Spike Kohlbecker confirmed at Kiwi Motorsport

 

Whoever edits the wiki page must have inside info, because the nationalities of the unannouned drivers are already filled, looks like a Kiwi and a Dutch driver will be the last additions to the grid (which also means no Marta Garcia, sadly).

 

Also, if anyone is interested, thanks to the partnership between Tatuus, the origanizers and Studio 397, both the old and the new car and also all five tracks of the series will be available as free official content in rFactor 2:

Tatuus FT-50

Tatuus FT-60 

 

Teretonga 

Manfeild 

Highlands

Hampton Downs 

Pukekohe Park

Edited by balage06, 05 February 2020 - 11:10.

[balage06]

So the Dutch driver is 15-year-old Tijmen van der Helm, who will miss the first two rounds, because his 16th birthday is on January 26.

http://www.formulasc...ng-series/58474

[balage06]

Puerto Rican US F4 race winner Jose Blanco-Chock is the final addition to the grid, he will drive for Kiwi Motorsport in the first two rounds.

http://www.formulasc...wo-rounds/58615

 

Aaaand it's race week!

Edited by balage06, 14 January 2020 - 13:25.

[balage06]

The races will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv

[balage06]

So far, it looks close between Lawson, Collet and Zendeli

 

FP1 http://www.race-moni...Session/6894642

FP2 http://www.race-moni...Session/6894724

FP3 http://www.race-moni...Session/6894740

[ANF]

Full Half race broadcast of Race 1 from six hours ago: https://motorsport.t...ds-race-1/30561

Race results: http://www.race-moni...Session/6895054

[efuloni]

Collet got a 5sec penalty, dropping to 7th.

[ANF]

What a shame. Collet lost the win for having made a practice start on the warm-up lap... https://www.toyota.c...practice-start/

Oh, and Amaury Cordeel didn't start the race. He has a suspected concussion after this accident in Friday practice:


"The session was cut short when Amaury Cordeel (Belgium) crashed into the wall at the sweeping final corner. He was then collected by Kiwi Motorsport teammate José Blanco (Puerto Rico) at high speed."
https://www.driven.c...ighlands-crash/

[ANF]

Top 6 in the second qualifying session, which sets the grid for... I guess it sets the grid for one of the remaining races. Anyway:

1:27.375 Lawson
1:27.401 Collet
1:27.644 Colapinto
1:27.686 Fraga
1:27.904 Saucy
1:28.248 Tsunoda

[ANF]

Race 2 will start at 12:10 local time, that is in 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Race 3 will start at 16:20, so in 6 hours and 30 minutes.

Race 2 live stream: https://motorsport.t...ds-race-2/30564
Race 3 live stream: https://motorsport.t...ds-race-3/30567

[ANF]

Is it just me or is the stream dead? https://motorsport.t...ds-race-2/30564

Oh, it's playing now!

Edited by ANF, 18 January 2020 - 23:06.

[balage06]

So what's the algorithm that determines the grid for race 2? I'm a bit confused.

Edited by balage06, 18 January 2020 - 23:16.

[ANF]

I wonder how fast Zendeli can go if he can get past Rasmussen.

[ANF]

Well, that was fairly uneventful. I hope Collet will bounce back in race 3.

[ezequiel]

Race 3

[balage06]

Wasn't the most eventful weekend, that's for sure. Unfortunately this bigger car made overtaking almost impossible. Hopefully, the main straight at Terentonga will be long enough for some action.

[balage06]

Amaury Cordeel has been ruled out of the remainder of the season:

http://www.formulasc...ng-series/58951

[ANF]

Qualifying 1 is under way at Teretonga. I think. Live timing says red flag with no times set... http://www.race-moni...Live/Race/92280 (Edit: There's a green flag now – with only four minutes remaining of the session!)

Race 1 will start in 3 hours and 45 minutes.

Weekend schedule: https://www.toyota.c...teretonga-2020/

Edited by ANF, 24 January 2020 - 22:31.

[ANF]

Top 6 in Qualifying 1: Fraga, Walls, Saucy, Rasmussen, Colapinto, Collet.

Tsunoda P11, Lawson P14, Ptáček P17.

Chelsea Herbert didn't set a time, so perhaps the first red flag was for her. (Edit: Indeed it was. Aftermath video: https://youtu.be/LpOq7Q1kcbA Apparently she went off coming out of the pits? The nose seems to have gone through a tyre wall and might have made pretty hard contact with a bank.)

Here's the full Qualifying 1 broadcast: https://motorsport.t...lifying-1/31269 There are pictures of Herbert's car being craned away at the 14:20 mark. Could it have been a stuck throttle? The rear tyres look very shiny, don't they?

Edited by ANF, 25 January 2020 - 01:47.

[ANF]

"These results are EXTREMELY provisional as we understand more or less everyone is under investigation for potential yellow-flag infringements. We'll update you when we can."
https://twitter.com/...849703065202690

[ANF]

Race 1 is 15 minutes away!
Live stream: https://motorsport.t...ga-race-1/31203
Live timing: http://www.race-moni...Live/Race/92280

[balage06]

Now that was a good race! Unfortunately the grid shake up was due to Chelsea Herbert's qualifying incident, I hope she's ok. But Lawson should show this side of him this year in Europe too, from 14th to 6th, stunning drive.

[ANF]

Qualifying 2 is coming up on motorsport.tv to set the grid for Race 3.

[ANF]

Chelsea Herbert has a fracture in her lower back and won't be racing anymore in the series. Two race weekends and two drivers out with injuries...

[ANF]

What a nice little feature on motorsport.tv, refreshing the page every 5 seconds and stopping and reloading the video. Never seen anything like it!

Jackson Walls on pole in the end, I believe?!

[ANF]

Will Race 2 be as good as the first one? It's 55 minutes away, with Lawson Denner on reverse grid pole: https://motorsport.t...ga-race-2/31206

Edited by ANF, 25 January 2020 - 23:34.

[ANF]

Formation lap under way.

[balage06]

I don't want to spoil the result, but another fun race. This track looks simple at first sight, but it has such a nice flow and drivers must be really committed to overtake through T1.

[ANF]

Indeed, another fun race and the drivers really have to fight hard to make a move stick. This is probably what the F1 cars will look like at Zandvoort.

Race 3 will start in 2h55m.

[ANF]

LIVE: https://motorsport.t...ga-race-3/31209

Race start is 5 minutes away.

[balage06]

Hampton Downs:

 

FP1 report and results: 

http://www.formulasc...downs-fp1/59216

 

FP2 report and results:

http://www.formulasc...downs-fp3/59221

 

Qualy stream (22:00 UTC Fri):

https://eu.motorspor...lifying-1/31377

 

Race 1 stream (02:05 UTC Sat):

https://eu.motorspor...ns-race-1/31380

[balage06]

Qualy is live!

[ANF]

Qualifying 1 top 6: Ptáček, Lawson, Fraga, Collet, Rasmussen, Walls.

[ANF]

Race 1 is 10 minutes away: https://motorsport.t...ns-race-1/31380

[balage06]

I'm impressed with Fraga, he's been the only worthy opponent for Lawson so far.

[PedroDiCasttro]

I'm impressed with Fraga, he's been the only worthy opponent for Lawson so far.

A shame he doesn't have the financial support to make it into F3. He was more impressive than Enzo Fittipaldi last year at Regional F3.

[MikeV1987]

He will get the support from Sony or Polyphony Digital if he keeps this up. It would be a massive marketing opportunity for them.

[ANF]

I always assumed that Igor Fraga is the younger brother of Felipe Fraga, but perhaps they are not related?!

[ANF]

Another pole for Fraga who was 0.02 seconds quicker than Lawson in Qualifying 2.