Simon Baker of Kapiti took first blood as the second round of the 2026/2027 Mazda Racing Super Series got underway at Taupō International Motorsport Park in Taupō on Saturday.
Baker took the lead on the first corner of the final lap to win what had been an enthralling race, with Stu Lawton of Paraparaumu and James Black of Dunedin also mounting strong challenges.
However, after ten laps of hard but clean racing, Baker led home Lawton by 0.958 of a second, with Black third. Lawton set the fastest lap of the race.
At the end of a hard-fought contest, Baker said, “I had good early pace,” and praised teammate Lawton for the help he gave him. Lawton said,
“It was a good battle, James (Black) and I were neck and neck for a while, and I missed a couple of gears during the race.” Black too admitted to missing a couple of gears during the intense action.
Earlier in the day, Lawton had topped qualifying to take pole position ahead of Black, Jesse Gould of Raumati Beach, Baker, series leader Bryan Walker of Christchurch, Finley McQuade, Mark Oudney and Ant Tork, with Rudi Kronstrom and Nigel Edger completing the top ten.
Lawton led out of turn one after the lights went out for the first of three races this weekend, but Black came back at him, and the duo raced side by side around the twisty Taupō layout with Black emerging with the early lead. Lawton and Black opened a gap as Walker and Baker battled behind them for third and fourth.
Baker managed to pass Walker on lap 3 before more change came on lap 5 when after challenging for the lead Lawton made the pass on Black down the long straight. Black had a brief return to the front a couple of laps later before Lawton passed him on the straight again.
Throughout it all, Baker was closing, and on lap 8 he passed Black to move into second, then completed his run to the front at the opening corner of the final lap to take the lead and head home ahead of Lawton and Black.
Walker came home fourth ahead of Gould. Oudney crossed the line in sixth only to be disqualified for a technical breach, promoting Kronstrom to sixth ahead of Tork, McQuade, who had a brief off on lap 9, Dalan Price of Swannanoa in Canterbury, with Nigel Edger of Hamilton rounding out the top ten in what was another example of superb Mazda Racing Super Series racing.
This weekend, the Mazda Racing Series is part of the PTS Logistics Season Opener of the Repco NextGen NZ Championship.
Tomorrow morning a 12-lap contest featuring a grid with the top ten from Saturday’s result is reversed starts the day before a 10-lap finale over 10 laps from a grid based on round points to that point.
Header Photo: Geoff Ridder
