Asian Motor Sports

Scott Pye and Nathan Antunes have set up a trans-Tasman tussle in the opening round of the Toyota Racing Series this weekend at Ruapuna. The pair have dominated in an Australian clean-sweep across all testing and qualifying sessions.

In back-to-back qualifying sessions this morning, the Australian drivers have taken all three pole positions for the first round of the seven-round championship series.

South Australian Scott Pye, a TRS rookie having his first “proper” drive of a wings-and-slicks race car, grabbed pole for the first race with a best lap of 1:20.197, his time also the fastest lap of the day which gives him pole for Sunday’s feature race, the 24-lap Wigram Cup.

Starting alongside him in the first race this afternoon is Hamilton driver Michael Burdett, the 2007-2008 TRS rookie of the year, who posted a 1:20.227 in the first qualifying session. Palmerston North’s Sam MacNeill was third fastest in the Karcher car, setting a best in that session of 1:20.757. Antunes was fourth overall.

The session was not without incident. Young Rotorua driver Keeley Pudney spun twice, the second forcing a brief halt to qualifying when the car ended up broadside across a hairpin corner.

In the second session Antunes showed his speed, setting a mark of 1:20.198 to give the Complispace-backed team a clean sweep of pole positions and an all-Australian front row for the feature race. Michael Burdett was once more second fastest on 1:20.206, splitting the Australians for race two.

Scott Pye set third fastest time in the second session, posting a 1:20.333, and will line up on the second row for race two alongside Auckland’s Mitch Cunningham.

Keeley Pudney once more had a troubled session, spinning backwards and damaging his rear suspension and wing.

It is the first time Australian racers have locked-up pole position across an entire TRS event weekend.

Syndey-based Antunes raced the whole TRS series in the 2006-2007 summer of motorsport, while Pye is a relatively recent arrival in premier-level single-seater racing but has enjoyed a strong season in Australian Formula Ford this year.

The pair race for Trevor Sheumack’s European Technique team and are engineered by Kiwi Andy Neale, himself a former race driver and F1 mechanic.