Action galore in Mazda Racing Series at Hampton Downs

Mac Templeton of Prebbleton in Canterbury took his first win as the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing Series provided an action-packed race in the first contest of Round 3 of their North Island Series at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in North Waikato today.

The excitement started in qualifying as Stuart Lawton of Paraparaumu took pole by just .250 of a second from Templeton with Callum Pratt of Auckland, championship leader Rex Edwards of Tauranga, Jesse Gould of Raumati Beach and Aucklander Mark Oudney completing the top six on the grid.

The start of the race later in the morning was frantic. Lawton and Templeton ran side by side through turn one with Templeton prevailing to take the lead. Lawton ran wide at turn two but deeper in the pack there were incidents through turns two and three when Steven Spear turned David Atkins around leaving Alex Canty no room to manoeuvre. Canty collected Atkins in the driver’s side, forcing their retirement.

As the incident unfolded Edwards got past Templeton but a safety car had been called so he redressed the position.

The action resumed on lap 4 with a huge battle between Templeton, Edwards and initially Lawton at the front. Karl Gaines of Auckland joined the action early on lap 5 as he slipped past Lawton to take third place.

At the front Templeton was starting to put a gap on Edwards but Gaines and Lawton were having a massive battle with Lawton having a couple of big slides as he pushed hard to re-pass the Aucklander. Behind them Samuel Dashfield, Pratt and Gould were having a mammoth battle as well.

There was no denying Templeton however as he crossed the line for his debut victory, 3.356 seconds ahead of Edwards with Gaines third ahead of Lawton. Pratt was next with Dashfield, Oudney, Gould and Aucklanders Leo Bult and Steve Brown completing the top ten.

Elton Wichman was eleventh with Nigel Edger of Hamilton making a good comeback to recover from the first lap to place twelfth.

Templeton declared himself “ecstatic” with the win, especially after losing a potential win at Taupō recently after receiving a penalty. ”I’m so glad to do it the right way this time,” he said from the podium.

Tomorrow morning at 8.30am competitors face a 12-lap race with a reverse top ten grid based on Saturday’s race result which will see Steve Brown on pole with Templeton and Edwards starting from the fifth row of the grid.

The finale over ten laps with a grid based on weekend points is timed to start at 1.53pm.

The series is part of the action at the latest round of the Repco NextGen NZ Championship, the Alliance Services Hampton Downs International.