2011 Toyota Racing Series

The 2011 Toyota Racing Series was the seventh running of the Toyota Racing Series. The Toyota Racing Series is New Zealand's premier open-wheeler motorsport category.

Defending champion Mitch Evans of Giles Motorsport retained both his International Trophy and main series titles, joining Daniel Gaunt as the only drivers to have won the Series on more than one occasion, after enjoying a successful championship campaign. Evans took seven race victories – including becoming the youngest-ever winner of the New Zealand Grand Prix – and fourteen podium finishes out of a possible fifteen races. Evans clinched both championship titles at Manfield after his closest rival at the time, Scott Pye elected not to attend the final meeting of the season at Taupo due to testing commitments in Europe. Pye fell to fourth in the championship standings after strong weekends for Nick Cassidy and Jamie McNee allowed them to overhaul Pye's points tally.

Cassidy, another Giles Motorsport driver, finished as top rookie after taking the round victory at Taupo which included his first two race wins in the Series, and he also took five further podium finishes as he finished 168 points behind Evans. McNee, in his second season in the championship, took his first race victories, winning at Timaru and Hampton Downs as well as a second place at Taupo to finish 47 points clear of Pye. Russian driver Daniil Kvyat finished the best of the five European drivers in the series, finishing in fifth place for Victory Motor Racing with a solitary victory at Manfeild. Two other drivers won races during the season, Russia's Ivan Lukashevich, like fellow countryman Kvyat won at Manfeild, and Britain's Alex Lynn won at Teretonga.

Teams and drivers

Team	#	Driver	Rounds
Giles Motorsport	1	Mitch Evans[1]	All
	7	Nick Cassidy[1]	All
	13	Nick Foster[1]	All
	36	Alex Lynn[1]	1–4
M2 Competition	2	Earl Bamber[2]	4
	4	Kotaro Sakurai[1]	1–4
	5	Ivan Lukashevich[1]	1–4
	11	Earl Bamber[3]	3
		Ken Smith[1]	4
	22	Jordan Skinner[1]	All
ETEC Motorsport	8	Jamie McNee[1]	All
	19	Scott Pye[1]	1–4
		Jono Lester[4]	5
	20	Josh Hill[1]	1–4
	48	Mario Farnbacher[1]	1–4
Dart International	17	Alastair Wootten[1]	All
Victory Motor Racing	29	Daniil Kvyat[1]	1–4
	87	Damon Leitch[1]	All

Calendar

The first four rounds were part of the International Trophy.^[5]

Round		Date	Circuit/Location
1	Race 1	15 January	Teretonga Park, Invercargill
	Race 2	16 January
	Race 3
2	Race 1	22 January	Timaru International Motor Raceway, Timaru
	Race 2	23 January
	Race 3
3	Race 1	5 February	Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato
	Race 2	6 February
	Race 3
4	Race 1	12 February	Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding
	Race 2	13 February
	Race 3
5	Race 1	12 March	Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupo
	Race 2	13 March
	Race 3

Results

Round		Circuit	Pole Position	Winning Driver	Winning Team	Round Winning Driver	Round Winning Team
1	Race 1	Teretonga Park, Invercargill	Mitch Evans	Scott Pye	ETEC Motorsport	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2		Nick Cassidy	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 3			Alex Lynn	Giles Motorsport
2	Race 1	Timaru International Motor Raceway, Timaru	Mitch Evans	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2		Mitch Evans	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 3			Jamie McNee	ETEC Motorsport
3	Race 1	Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato	Nick Foster	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2			Jamie McNee	ETEC Motorsport
	Race 3		Nick Foster	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
4	Race 1	Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding	Daniil Kvyat	Daniil Kvyat	Victory Motor Racing	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2			Ivan Lukashevich	M2 Competition
	Race 3		Mitch Evans	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
5	Race 1	Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupo	Mitch Evans	Nick Cassidy	Giles Motorsport	Nick Cassidy	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2		Mitch Evans	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 3			Nick Cassidy	Giles Motorsport

Championship standings

Scoring system

Drivers' Championship

Pos Driver TER TIM HMP MAN TAU Points 1 Mitch Evans 67 75 60 75 75 60 75 67 75 67 67 75 Ret 75 60 973 2 Nick Cassidy R 36 67 39 49 67 54 60 60 60 30 45 39 75 49 75 805 3 Jamie McNee 45 33 30 28 45 75 49 75 45 26 42 28 45 67 42 675 4 Scott Pye 75 54 49 60 54 42 30 36 54 60 54 60 628 5 Daniil Kvyat R 60 Ret 45 26 42 49 67 42 67 75 60 67 600 6 Alastair Wootten 30 42 42 39 36 45 39 33 42 42 22 Ret 60 45 67 584 7 Ivan Lukashevich 39 39 36 45 49 67 33 28 33 45 75 42 531 8 Damon Leitch R Ret 60 54 30 39 Ret 45 49 24 39 39 Ret 54 39 45 517 9 Alex Lynn 54 45 75 67 60 33 54 54 Ret 36 36 Ret 514 10 Nick Foster R 49 36 Ret 42 33 Ret Ret 26 26 49 24 49 67 60 49 510 11 Jordan Skinner R 33 Ret 28 36 30 36 28 Ret 30 33 Ret 33 42 42 39 410 12 Mario Farnbacher R Ret 49 67 54 Ret Ret 26 30 39 54 33 45 397 13 Josh Hill R Ret 28 33 Ret 26 39 36 39 36 28 49 54 368 14 Kotaro Sakurai R 42 30 26 33 28 Ret 24 24 28 24 30 36 325 15 Earl Bamber 42 45 49 Ret 28 Ret 164 16 Jono Lester 49 54 54 157 17 Ken Smith 22 26 30 78 Pos Driver TER TIM HMP MAN TAU Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Points finish Blue Non-points finish Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Did not finish (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not participate Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole R - Rookie

References

External links

• Official website of the Toyota Racing Series