Hats off to Ben Harford

Wellington driver Ben Harford convincingly won the 20-lap Dennis Hulme Trophy Race for Toyota Racing Series (TRS) open-wheeled racing cars at Taupo Motorsport Park this afternoon.

He drove away from the opposition, opening a gap of more than four seconds in the final race for the TRS cars at the A1GP meeting.

Harford’s second win of the weekend took him to within 13 points of clinching the international sub-series for the Toyota single seaters.

That went to Lady Wigram Trophy Race winner, Earl Bamber who placed third in today’s race after an event-long scrap with his teammate M itch Cunningham.

As Harford opened a gap, three cars behind him, led by Nelson Hartley, were embroiled in a battle for third place.

The final order was decided late in the race when Cunningham made a bold bid to pass Hartley.

Hartley managed to hold on to the place, and Bamber seized his chance and ducked past Cunningham.

Andy Knight’s international series chances nosedived when he became em broiled in a pit straight fracas moments after the race went green.

Michael Burdett and Dominic Storey appeared to make contact as cars jostled for track position heading to Turn 1, and Knight was spun around.

Both Storey and Knight got going again but Burdett’s race was over.

Australian Nathan Antunes finished fifth, ahead of Sam MacNeill.

Knight came home 11th, and has retained his NZ TRS Series lead, from Harford and Bamber.

Former A1GP driver, Matt Halliday, whose chances of winning the international segment of the series vanished when he crashed on Race 2 yesterday, dropped out of today’s race.

Halliday had been running behind Daynom Templeman and ahead of Christina Orr, when he pitted and retired at the en d of lap nine.