Invercargill’s Brendon Leitch is the latest name to confirm his place on the grid for the 2021 New Zealand Grand Prix.
Leitch, 25, boasts the special title of being the most experienced Castrol Toyota Racing Series driver in the world having competed in TRS championships in the first generation FT40 car and the more recent FT50.
Recently, he got his first taste of the current FT60 car and has extensive experience in the Tatuus chassis having raced last season in the Asia Formula Three Championship, a category that utilises the same chassis, albeit on different tyres.
A former Lamborghini Junior Driver, Leitch is confident his experience will come into play for the Grand Prix.
He will also don the now familiar yellow colour scheme associated with Dayle ITM-Racing.
“It’s been disappointing to effectively say goodbye to my international drives because of the pandemic and the associated international travel problems that come with a situation like that,” Leitch said.
“Dayle ITM has long been my major backer and the opportunity has come up to do the Grand Prix one more time, this time in the current car but with the familiar yellow backing and I’m looking forward to flying the flag and racing in TRS once again.
“There’s absolutely no reason why we cannot be competitive from the first session of the event.
“I have a good idea of where we need to go with set up of the car and what needs to be done in the limited time we will have to get the cars dialled in before the Grand Prix itself.
“There are some massive names competing and it will be cool to be part of it.”
Leitch’s most recent season in TRS was in fact the last year that utilised the FT50 chassis.
He earned a race win at Highlands Motorsport Park and two further podiums en route to a respectable sixth in the standings.
Last year Leitch took a break from single-seaters and ran a campaign alongside Christina Orr-West in the South Island Endurance Series.
So far, Ken Smith, Shane van Gisbergen, Greg Murphy, Daniel Gaunt, Chris van der Drift and up and coming stars Billy Frazer, Kaleb Ngatoa and Matthew Payne are amongst those set to take the GP start at Hampton Downs in two weeks.