2011 Toyota Racing Series

The 2011 Toyota Racing Series was the seventh running of the Toyota Racing Series. The Toyota Racing Series is New Zealand's premier open-wheeler motorsport category.

Defending champion Mitch Evans of Giles Motorsport retained both his International Trophy and main series titles, joining Daniel Gaunt as the only drivers to have won the Series on more than one occasion, after enjoying a successful championship campaign. Evans took seven race victories – including becoming the youngest-ever winner of the New Zealand Grand Prix – and fourteen podium finishes out of a possible fifteen races. Evans clinched both championship titles at Manfield after his closest rival at the time, Scott Pye elected not to attend the final meeting of the season at Taupō due to testing commitments in Europe. Pye fell to fourth in the championship standings after strong weekends for Nick Cassidy and Jamie McNee allowed them to overhaul Pye's points tally.

Cassidy, another Giles Motorsport driver, finished as top rookie after taking the round victory at Taupō which included his first two race wins in the Series, and he also took five further podium finishes as he finished 168 points behind Evans. McNee, in his second season in the championship, took his first race victories, winning at Timaru and Hampton Downs as well as a second place at Taupō to finish 47 points clear of Pye. Russian driver Daniil Kvyat finished the best of the five European drivers in the series, finishing in fifth place for Victory Motor Racing with a solitary victory at Manfeild. Two other drivers won races during the season, Russia's Ivan Lukashevich, like fellow countryman Kvyat won at Manfeild, and Britain's Alex Lynn won at Teretonga.

Teams and drivers

Team	No.	Driver	Rounds
Giles Motorsport	1	Mitch Evans^[1]	All
	7	Nick Cassidy^[1]	All
	13	Nick Foster^[1]	All
	36	Alex Lynn^[1]	1–4
M2 Competition	2	Earl Bamber^[2]	4
	4	Kotaro Sakurai^[1]	1–4
	5	Ivan Lukashevich^[1]	1–4
	11	Earl Bamber^[3]	3
	11	Ken Smith^[1]	4
	22	Jordan Skinner^[1]	All
ETEC Motorsport	8	Jamie McNee^[1]	All
	19	Scott Pye^[1]	1–4
	19	Jono Lester^[4]	5
	20	Josh Hill^[1]	1–4
	48	Mario Farnbacher^[1]	1–4
Dart International	17	Alastair Wootten^[1]	All
Victory Motor Racing	29	Daniil Kvyat^[1]	1–4
Victory Motor Racing	87	Damon Leitch^[1]	All

Calendar

The first four rounds were part of the International Trophy.^[5]

Round		Date	Circuit/Location
1	R1	15 January	Teretonga Park, Invercargill
	R2	16 January
	R3	16 January
2	R1	22 January	Timaru International Motor Raceway, Timaru
	R2	23 January
	R3	23 January
3	R1	5 February	Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato
	R2	6 February
	R3	6 February
4	R1	12 February	Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding
	R2	13 February
	R3	13 February
5	R1	12 March	Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupō
	R2	13 March
	R3	13 March

Results

Round		Circuit	Pole Position	Winning Driver	Winning Team	Round Winning Driver	Round Winning Team
1	Race 1	Teretonga Park, Invercargill	Mitch Evans	Scott Pye	ETEC Motorsport	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2		Nick Cassidy	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 3			Alex Lynn	Giles Motorsport
2	Race 1	Timaru International Motor Raceway, Timaru	Mitch Evans	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2		Mitch Evans	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 3			Jamie McNee	ETEC Motorsport
3	Race 1	Hampton Downs Motorsport Park, Waikato	Nick Foster	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2			Jamie McNee	ETEC Motorsport
	Race 3		Nick Foster	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
4	Race 1	Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding	Daniil Kvyat	Daniil Kvyat	Victory Motor Racing	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2			Ivan Lukashevich	M2 Competition
	Race 3		Mitch Evans	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
5	Race 1	Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupō	Mitch Evans	Nick Cassidy	Giles Motorsport	Nick Cassidy	Giles Motorsport
	Race 2		Mitch Evans	Mitch Evans	Giles Motorsport
	Race 3			Nick Cassidy	Giles Motorsport

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	21st	22nd	23rd	24th	25th	26th	27th	28th	29th	30th
Points	75	67	60	54	49	45	42	39	36	33	30	28	26	24	22	20	18	16	14	12	10	9	8	7	6	5	4	3	2	1

Drivers' Championship

Pos	Driver	TER			TIM			HMP			MAN			TAU			Points
1	Mitch Evans	2	1	3	1	1	3	1	2	1	2	2	1	Ret	1	3	973
2	Nick Cassidy R	9	2	8	5	2	4	3	3	3	11	6	8	1	5	1	805
3	Jamie McNee	6	10	11	12	6	1	5	1	6	13	7	12	6	2	7	675
4	Scott Pye	1	4	5	3	4	7	11	9	4	3	4	3				628
5	Daniil Kvyat R	3	Ret	6	13	7	5	2	7	2	1	3	2				600
6	Alastair Wootten	11	7	7	8	9	6	8	10	7	7	15	Ret	3	6	2	584
7	Ivan Lukashevich	8	8	9	6	5	2	10	12	10	6	1	7				531
8	Damon Leitch R	Ret	3	4	11	8	Ret	6	5	14	8	8	Ret	4	8	6	517
9	Alex Lynn	4	6	1	2	3	10	4	4	Ret	9	9	Ret				514
10	Nick Foster R	5	9	Ret	7	10	Ret	Ret	13	13	5	14	5	2	3	5	510
11	Jordan Skinner R	10	Ret	12	9	11	9	12	Ret	11	10	Ret	10	7	7	8	410
12	Mario Farnbacher R	Ret	5	2	4	Ret	Ret	13	11	8	4	10	6				397
13	Josh Hill R	Ret	12	10	Ret	13	8	9	8	9	12	5	4				368
14	Kotaro Sakurai R	7	11	13	10	12	Ret	14	14	12	14	11	9				325
15	Earl Bamber							7	6	5	Ret	12	Ret				164
16	Jono Lester													5	4	4	157
17	Ken Smith										15	13	11				78
Pos	Driver	TER			TIM			HMP			MAN			TAU			Points

Colour	Result
Gold	Winner
Silver	Second place
Bronze	Third place
Green	Points finish
Blue	Non-points finish
Blue	Non-classified finish (NC)
Purple	Retired (Ret)
Red	Did not qualify (DNQ)
Red	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
R – Rookie

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o "2011 Toyota Racing Series Competitor List" (PDF). toyotaracing.co.nz. Toyota Racing Management. 21 December 2010. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
^ Martinez, Peter (11 February 2011). "Earl Bamber rusty for NZ Grand Prix defence". Stuff. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
^ "Bamber late entry for Toyota series". The New Zealand Herald. APN News & Media. New Zealand Press Association. 4 February 2011. Retrieved 4 February 2011.
^ "Lester to make Toyota Racing Series debut at Taupo". toyotaracing.co.nz. Toyota Racing Management. 11 March 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2011.
^ "Toyota Racing Series – 2011" (PDF). toyotaracing.co.nz. 17 February 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2011.