Randle turns back clock with TRS victory

Australian star Thomas Randle has claimed the feature race win in round three of the Castrol Toyota Racing Series at Hampton Downs.

Starting from pole position, Randle was untroubled in taking the win for his Victory Motor Racing squad.

Randle beat M2 Competition pair Ferdinand Habsburg and Jehan Daruvala.

The highly experienced Randle is the first Australian winner of the NZ Motor Cup since Warwick Brown in his Tasman Series-winning year in 1975.

It is the same trophy which Australia’s triple F1 World Champion, the late Sir Jack Brabham, won at Ardmore in 1958, 1960 and 1961.

“It’s unreal. I’ve dreamed about this,” Randle said.

“And it’s a relief. I’ve been fast for the last two weekends.

“It’s awesome. The Victory Team has given me a great car. Now we’ll have to see what we can do at Taupo.”

Randle lost a race win at Teretonga last weekend when he was relegated for jumping the start and then spun out of the lead in the main race.

In the earlier race, Enaam Ahmed completed a quinella for Giles Motorsport when he beat series leader Richard Verschoor.

Randle was seventh in Race 2 after finishing third in the Saturday heat behind New Zealand’s Ferrari junior ace Marcus Armstrong while Pedro Piquet was second.

He had pole position for the opening race but fell foul of the slippery conditions on the opening lap before salvaging the podium.

Randle has now slashed Verschoor’s lead to just 23 with the latter now heading the standings on 537 going into round four at Taupo next weekend.