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In wet conditions at the Super Sprint NZ Championships third round, Mansell won the second race before a second in the third which was red flagged on two occasions. The second was brought out as cars were aquaplaning in the heavy rain and the race was not restarted.
The rain came before the start of Race 2, a reverse top 10 grid of the first race result on Saturday at Manfeild – Circuit Chris Amon. China’s Gerrard Xie was on pole and led from a fast-starting Mansell into Turn 1 while American Patrick Woods Toth battled with Smith and NZ’s Kaleb Ngatoa.
Just a couple of corners later, Xie spun which gave Mansell the lead. Ngatoa worked his way to second and Smith relegated the Toth to fourth. The Safety Car was deployed when Brazilian Lucas Fecury spun and was stranded in the middle of the corner.
It was a quick interruption as Fecury was able to get going as the Safety Car left the pits. Mansell managed the resumption at the front and led Ngatoa to a one-two result for Giles Motorsport ahead of Smith. The latter’s MTEC Motorsport teammate Elliott Cleary was 14th at the end of Lap 1 before he progressed to 10th. On the last lap he was able to relegate Xie for ninth.
Bilinski had pole for Race 3 with Mansell alongside and Smith third on the grid. The first Safety Car came before the first lap was completed after Italian Nicola Lacorte and Korean Michael Shin speared off into the tyres at Turn 5.
The race restarted in heavier rain with Bilinski leading Mansell. A spin by Smith dropped him from third which became a fight between Ngatoa and Sceats. Conditions worsened and the race was red flagged. Sceats finished third from Smith and Ngatoa. Meanwhile Cleary was able to improve from 14th to 10th.
In the Toyota 86 Championship, Hunter Robb wrestled the lead off Tom Bewley to take the win and the second round overall. Best of the Australians was Alice Buckley where she finished ahead of Lockie Bloxsom in both Sunday races while Summer Rintoule’s weekend finished disastrously.
Bloxsom had pole for the reverse top 10 86s’ second race. On the opening lap he and Justin Allen vied for the leader with the latter able to go ahead and win the race.
Bloxsom came under fire from behind and was systematically passed by several including Buckley who finished seventh, just in front of her fellow countryman. Rintoule was caught up in a last-lap incident. She was hit by Race 1 winner John Penny who was recovering from his second spin. William Exton placed second ahead of Bewley, Robb and Jackson Rooney.
Rintoule was even less fortunate in the third race where she crash at the final corner in front of the pit entry. Buckley had a moment on the opening lap which her briefly outside the top 10 before she fought back to again finish seventh and in front of Bloxsom.
