It was Sunday afternoon before any of the six classes on the programme managed to race in dry conditions.
The rain created plenty of incidents and the safety car was called upon many times across the course of the weekend.
Despite the conditions, highlights included the appearance of international drivers from 11 different countries in the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy races, a lunchtime demonstration on Sunday featuring kiwi Supercar driver Ryan Wood in the Gen3 Ford Mustang he raced last season in Australia, alongside Tony Quinn in a Gen3 Camaro, plus the first visit to Teretonga Park of the mighty V8s in the SP Tools TA2 NZ Championship.
Three races were held for the Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Trophy drivers. Another was scheduled but the conditions meant it dropped off the programme and will be raced later in the series. The feature event was the Spirit Of A Nation Cup with the winners of the two previous races of the weekend, Freddie Slater of the UK and Ugo Ugochukwu of the United States on the front row together. Slater led early in dry conditions before Ugochukwu took the lead at the beginning of lap 15. Soon after Kiwi driver Sebastian Manson went into the wall bringing about a stoppage. Showers swept across the circuit while drivers awaited a restart and all were on wet tyres when the race resumed. When it did Ugochukwu led away only to go off at the first corner, dropping to the back of the field and leaving Slater in the lead to win from Kiwi Louis Sharp with Japanese driver Jin Nakamura third.
The field lined up ready for the second race later on Saturday afternoon with series leader Ugochukwu on pole before the decision was made to not start the race due to the conditions. The race was held over to Sunday and it was Ugochukwu who led all the way in a race with three interventions from the safety car. Kiwi Ryan Wood was second and American Cooper Shipman third.
Caleb Byers, of Christchurch, won the first ever SP Tools TA2 NZ Championship race at Teretonga Park on Saturday from Toby Elmiger and Dylan Grant, and then backed it up on Sunday morning leading home Peter Ward and Grant, before Elmiger took the final race when he opted for slick tyres.
Chris White Junior, of Prebbleton, took victory in Saturday’s Bridgestone GR86 Championship race with 14-year-old Ajay Giddy second and Zach Blincoe third. Sunday morning’s race finished under safety car, leaving the win to Justin Allen from Blincoe, with Josh Bethune third. White returned to the winner’s circle in race three ahead of Giddy and Hugo Allan.
Porsche drivers Rick Armstrong, Luke Manson and Nigel Cromie each won a race in the Summerset GT NZ Championship, Armstrong of Christchurch taking the round win while Australian Lachlan Evennett and Glen Chappel took GT4 honours.
On Sunday morning Eskandari-Marandi won again, from Begg. In dry conditions for the third race Marco Manson of Auckland headed home Owens and another Australian Toby Musico of Queensland. Begg scored sixth place.
The first two Nexen Tyre Mazda Racing Super Series races were disrupted by the weather with very few racing laps until their finale. The races produced three different winners — Tomas Climo, of Hamilton, Callum Pratt, of Auckland and Stu Lawton, of Paraparaumu, Lawton securing the round win.
The next event at Teretonga Park is the Ascot Park Hotel Classic SpeedFest over the weekend of February 21 and 22.
By Lindsay Beer
