Edwards wins Round and leads North Island Mazda Series

Tauranga driver Rex Edwards secured the round victory as Round 2 of the Nexen Tyre NZ Mazda Racing North Island Series was fought out at Taupō International Motorsport Park over the weekend. Edwards placed second, third and first across the three races to win the round from Aucklanders Sam Dashfield and Karl Gaines after a weekend of drama, action and superb racing on the programme as part of the Repco NextGen NZ Championship.

Edwards, the series 2022/2023 champion, now leads the series points from Gaines and Callum Pratt of Auckland. Gaines took Masters (Over 50) honours for the round while Mac Templeton of Prebbleton in Canterbury was the top rookie despite a troubled weekend.

Edwards took the Racetech Pole Award in qualifying and was involved in a huge battle with Templeton in the opening race, leading initially before Templeton squeezed past into the lead. Edwards then ran wide chasing him, allowing Dashfield into second. Templeton greeted the flag in front but subsequently received a five second penalty for exceeding track limits for his move on Edwards which dropped him to third behind Dashfield and Edwards.

Callum Pratt, tenth the previous day, had pole for the top ten reverse grid race over twelve laps on Sunday morning and led all the way to take his debut series win from Gaines and Edwards who crossed the line side by side. Jesse Gould of Raumati Beach was fourth ahead of Aucklander Leo Bult and Dashfield. Templeton was fourteenth after experiencing fuel surge issues.

Pratt said his car was “a rocket ship,” while second and third was that close that Gaines admitted he thought Edwards had beaten him to the flag.

The final race over ten laps on Sunday afternoon saw Edwards lead all the way to win from Dashfield with the now Australia domiciled Stiaan Kriel taking third. Templeton and Bult had tangled off the line after Bult’s car experienced a problem getting off the line, an incident that brought out the safety car. Edwards led away at the restart opening a good gap before Dashfield closed the margin in the second half of the race.

Stu Lawton of Paraparaumu who arrived at the round second in the points and looking to take advantage of the absence of series leader Arthur Broughan had a horror weekend. He retired from the first race with an ECU problem before reappearing on Sunday in the ex-Simon Baker championship winning car, coming from the rear of the grid into the top ten in both of Sunday’s races.

The next round of the series takes place from 17-19 January at Hampton Downs Motorsport Park in North Waikato.