Asian Motor Sports

Sydney driver Nathan Antunes leveled up the developing trans-Tasman rivalry in the 2008-2009 Toyota Racing Series with an emphatic victory in the second race of the opening round.

From pole position, Antunes swept into the lead, race one winner Michael Burdett consolidating second place with the second Australian driver, Scott Pye, right behind.

Pye then tangled with Burdett, both cars sliding off the circuit at turn one. The field headed away with Mitch Cunningham taking over second place, Sam MacNeill third and Alastair Wootten fourth.

Pye was able to rejoin and pitted to have the car checked, but Burdett was out of the race.

“The car’s not badly damaged, it went in nose first and took a couple of hits to the floor, but there’s nothing too bad. It’s just a shame to be missing points from this race after winning the first one,” said Burdett afterward.

The tangle brought out the safety car for a lap, closing the rest of the field up and enabling Aucklander Mitch Cunningham to attack the Complispace car of Antunes after the re-start, boldly sweeping into the lead and setting up a mid-race battle that was resolved in Antunes’ favour later in the lap.

Behind them Sam MacNeill and Alastair Wootten were also battling for position, Wootten closing up on MacNeill’s Karcher-backed car in the mid-field and at one stage pushing his Radio Hauraki car alongside MacNeill going into the final corner of the lap before slotting in behind.

The finish order was Antunes, with a 7.3 second lead over second-placed Mitch Cunningham, then MacNeill third and Wootten fourth. The fastest lap of the race was set by Antunes at 1:19.643, still outside the outright lap record of 1:19.502 set by Ben Harford in the 2006-2007 championship.

The Toyota Racing Series continues this afternoon with the feature race, the 24-lap Wigram Cup, at 3:50 pm. Scott Pye, who did not finish the morning race, has pole for the feature race with Nathan Antunes alongside to set up an all-Australian front row.