“I ll have to sort my starts out,” van Gisbergen said following his victory. “I managed to get past him and took the only chance I got and it worked out really well. Twenty-eight laps tomorrow is going to be a long way. “We ve been making a few tweaks and the car is almost there but there s a little more to come. It s going to be awesome tomorrow and qualifying in the morning is going to be really important. Van der Drift was philosophical with his second place and felt the car had lost a tiny percentage of its pace-setting speed from Friday, but he remained optimistic about his chances on Sunday.
Shane
van Gisbergen put in a sensational final effort to top
Castrol Toyota Racing Series qualifying.
Picture Bruce
Jenkins
The Giz’s superb lap
of 1 minute 30.231 puts him on pole position for Sunday’s
morning race on Grand Prix day. Pole position for the first
race on Saturday goes to Friday pace setter Chris van der
Drift who’s second fastest time was quicker than the
Bathurst 1000 champion’s. A second qualifying session on
Sunday morning will decide the grid order for the Grand Prix
itself.
Friday pacesetter Chris van der Drift had set
the pace throughout the session and looked set for pole
Friday, 22 January 2021, 4:12 pm
Multiple
international champion and former Team New Zealand A1GP
driver Chris van der Drift fired the opening shot in the
first major practice session at the 66th New Zealand Grand
Prix at Hampton Downs this
afternoon.
He
waited until the second half of the session before posting a
flat 1 minute 31 second lap, which was enough to see him go
fastest overall by just over a tenth of a second.
With
most of the drivers opting to run on old tyres before
changing to new rubber, the session provided the first
glimpse of the likely pacesetters over the forthcoming Grand
Thursday, 21 January 2021, 1:01 pm
Sixteen of New Zealand’s top racing drivers are all set
to race in the 66th New Zealand Grand Prix this weekend and
there’s huge interest in what is being billed as an
historic Race of Champions.
Igor Fraga takes the
Grand Prix chequered flag in 2020. Which Kiwi will win it
this weekend and add their name to an illustrious list?
Picture Bruce Jenkins
With the pandemic travel
restrictions accounting for the usual international
entrants, it’s turned into an all-Kiwi affair. It is
arguably the most interesting field in a New Zealand Grand
Prix for a generation with the best of the past, present and
Conrad
Clark will race in the weekend’s Grand Prix and completes
the 16 driver line up.
Picture
TGRNZ
Clark’s China campaign
also saw him awarded Rookie of the Year and the MiTime Star
award for outstanding performance.
As well as his
successful campaign in the Chinese Formula 4 championship
where he secured no fewer than 12 race wins on his way to
the title, Clark debuted internationally in the USA Formula
4 championship in 2018 where he learnt the foundations of
international motorsport and has continued to capitalise on
that experience since.
Clark has raced internationally
more than he has in New Zealand and with COVID-19 putting an