2018 Toyota Racing Series

2018 Toyota Racing Series

Drivers' Champion: Robert Shwartzman

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The 2018 Castrol Toyota Racing Series was the fourteenth running of the Toyota Racing Series, the premier open-wheel motorsport category held in New Zealand. The series consisted of fifteen races at five meetings. It began on 13 January at Ruapuna Park in Christchurch, and concluded on 11 February with the 63rd running of the New Zealand Grand Prix, at Circuit Chris Amon in Feilding.

M2 Competition driver Robert Shwartzman won the title, being the only driver who finished in the top-five every race of the season. ^[1] His teammates (and series returnees) Richard Verschoor and Marcus Armstrong had more podium finishes and race wins, but were not as consistent as Shwartzman. Another M2 driver Juan Manuel Correa raced his first season in the series, but was not considered as a rookie due to his GP3 Series experience, and he won races at Teretonga and Taupō; he finished fourth in the standings. ^{[2] [3]} Giles Motorsport driver Clément Novalak was the highest placed rookie who conformed series regulations, winning races at Teretonga and Hampton Downs and completed the top-five in the championship. ^{[4] [5]}

Teams and drivers

Team	No.	Driver	Status	Rounds
Giles Motorsport	4	Reid Harker [6]	R	All
	17	Clément Novalak [7]	R	All
MTEC Motorsport	5	Ryan Yardley	R	All
	11	Taylor Cockerton		All
	52	Charles Milesi [8]	[N 1]	All
M2 Competition	7	Richard Verschoor [9]		All
	9	Marcus Armstrong [10]		All
	15	James Pull [11]	[N 1]	All
	35	Robert Shwartzman [12]	[N 1]	All
	68	Juan Manuel Correa [13]	[N 1]	All
Victory Motor Racing	28	Cameron Das	[N 1]	All
	44	Calvin Ming	R	1–3
	47	Ken Smith		5
	86	Brendon Leitch [14]		All

Race calendar and results

The calendar for the series was announced on 22 June 2017, and was held over five successive weekends in January and February. ^[15]

Round		Date	Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team	Round winner(s)	Report
1	R1	13 January	Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Christchurch	Robert Shwartzman	Robert Shwartzman	Richard Verschoor	M2 Competition	Marcus Armstrong	Report
	R2	14 January			Richard Verschoor	Marcus Armstrong	M2 Competition
	R3			Robert Shwartzman	Marcus Armstrong	Marcus Armstrong	M2 Competition
2	R1	20 January	Teretonga Park, Invercargill	Clément Novalak	Clément Novalak	Richard Verschoor	M2 Competition	Marcus Armstrong	Report
	R2	21 January			Clément Novalak	Juan Manuel Correa	M2 Competition
	R3			Marcus Armstrong	Clément Novalak	Clément Novalak	Giles Motorsport
3	R1	27 January	Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato	Richard Verschoor	Richard Verschoor	Richard Verschoor	M2 Competition	Richard Verschoor	Report
	R2	28 January			Juan Manuel Correa	Clément Novalak	Giles Motorsport
	R3			Richard Verschoor	Robert Shwartzman	Richard Verschoor	M2 Competition
4	R1	3 February	Bruce McLaren Motorsport Park, Taupō	Juan Manuel Correa	Juan Manuel Correa	Juan Manuel Correa	M2 Competition	Richard Verschoor	Report
	R2	4 February			Brendon Leitch	Brendon Leitch	Victory Motor Racing
	R3			Robert Shwartzman	Robert Shwartzman	Robert Shwartzman	M2 Competition
5	R1	10 February	Circuit Chris Amon, Feilding	Richard Verschoor	Richard Verschoor	Richard Verschoor	M2 Competition	Richard Verschoor	Report
	R2	11 February			Brendon Leitch	Brendon Leitch	Victory Motor Racing
	R3			Richard Verschoor	Richard Verschoor	Richard Verschoor	M2 Competition

Championship standings

In order for a driver to score championship points, they have to complete at least 75% of the race winner's distance, and be running at the race's completion. All races counted towards the final championship standings.

Scoring system

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th
Points	75	67	60	54	49	45	42	39	36	33	30	28	26	24	22	20	18	16	14	12

Drivers' championship

Pos. Driver RUA TER HMP TAU MAN Points 1 Robert Shwartzman 2 3 2 2 4 4 4 2 3 4 5 1 2 4 2 916 2 Richard Verschoor 1 2 Ret 1 6 3 1 5 1 3 3 3 1 3 1 911 3 Marcus Armstrong 3 1 1 3 3 2 2 3 2 5 4 2 5 5 7 901 4 Juan Manuel Correa 10 6 8 6 1 7 3 4 4 1 9 4 6 6 4 756 5 Clément Novalak 4 10 6 4 5 1 5 1 9 10 10 Ret 3 2 6 711 6 James Pull 5 11 3 5 2 6 7 7 5 2 8 7 8 8 10 692 7 Brendon Leitch 12 Ret 4 7 8 5 9 6 Ret 8 1 5 4 1 5 634 8 Reid Harker 8 8 12 8 13 10 6 9 12 6 7 12 9 9 9 538 9 Ryan Yardley 13 9 9 12 11 13 13 10 11 7 2 9 7 12 8 525 10 Taylor Cockerton 6 4 11 11 10 12 8 8 10 9 6 9 10 10 Ret 514 11 Charles Milesi 9 7 5 13 12 11 10 Ret 6 11 12 8 12 11 3 504 12 Cameron Das 11 Ret 7 9 7 8 11 Ret 7 Ret 11 6 11 7 11 438 13 Calvin Ming 7 5 10 10 9 9 12 11 10 320 14 Ken Smith 13 13 12 80 Pos. Driver RUA TER HMP TAU MAN Points

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (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 practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap Rookie

Footnotes

1. Under the series' sporting regulations, not considered as Rookie because of his previous racing experience

References

1. Waring, Bethonie (11 February 2018). "Shwartzman nicks TRS title from Ferrari stable-mate Armstrong in late drama". formulascout.com. Formula Scout. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
2. Waring, Bethonie (20 January 2018). "Juan Manuel Correa wins TRS Teretonga reversed-grid race". formulascout.com. Formula Scout. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
3. Waring, Bethonie (11 February 2018). "Juan Manuel Correa controls Taupo Toyota Racing Series opener". formulascout.com. Formula Scout. Retrieved 3 February 2018.
4. Waring, Bethonie (21 January 2018). "Novalak beats Armstrong to win Teretonga TRS feature race". formulascout.com. Formula Scout. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
5. Waring, Bethonie (11 February 2018). "Novalak takes second Toyota Racing Series win in Hampton Downs reversed-grid race". formulascout.com. Formula Scout. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
6. "Albany racer Reid Harker steps up to Castrol Toyota Racing Series title". 16 November 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
7. "Clement Novalak hoping to replicate karting success in Toyota Racing Series". 17 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
8. "Charles Milesi and Theo Coicaud heading to New Zealand for the Toyota Racing Series". 7 November 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
9. "Richard Verschoor to return to Toyota Racing Series with M2 | Formula Scout". www.formulascout.com. 15 December 2017. Retrieved 2017-12-15.
10. "FORMULA 4 CHAMP MARCUS ARMSTRONG BACK FOR TOYOTA RACING SERIES TILT". 9 November 2017. Archived from the original on 11 November 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
11. "James Pull runner-up in British F3 for Toyota Racing Series" . Retrieved 12 December 2017.
12. "RUSSIAN FERRARI JUNIOR HEADING DOWN UNDER FOR TOYOTA RACING SERIES". Archived from the original on 19 February 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2017.
13. "American driver for Toyota Racing Series". 14 November 2017. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
14. "Southland driver Brendon Leitch targets 2018 Toyota Racing Series". 3 October 2017. Retrieved 17 October 2017.
15. "Toyota Racing Series reveals 2018 schedule". Motorsport.com. 22 June 2017. Retrieved 13 January 2018.