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2006 New Zealand Grand Prix

Field	Value
Type	CUST
Description	Race 3, Round 3 of 8 of the 2006 Toyota Racing Series
Grand Prix	New Zealand
Country	New Zealand
Image	Teretonga Circuit track map.svg
Date	16 January,
Year	2006
Official name	LI New Zealand Grand Prix
Course	Permanent racing facility
Location	Teretonga Park, Feilding, New Zealand
Course_mi	1.59
Course_km	2.57
Distance_laps	34
Distance_mi	54.06
Distance_km	87.38
Weather	Light rain
Pole_Driver	Jay Howard
Pole_Team	Mark Petch Motorsport
Pole_Time	0:55.432
Pole_Country	GBR
Fast_Driver	Andy Knight
Fast_Team	Knight Motorsport
Fast_Time	1:01.545
Fast_Lap	30
Fast_Country	NZL
First_Driver	Hamad Al Fardan
First_Team	Team Meritus
First_Country	BHR
Second_Driver	Daniel Gaunt
Second_Team	International Motorsport
Second_Country	NZL
Third_Driver	Brendon Hartley
Third_Team	Victory Motorsport
Third_Country	NZL

The 2006 New Zealand Grand Prix event for open wheel racing cars was held at Teretonga Park, near Invercargill on 15 January 2006. It was the fifty first New Zealand Grand Prix and was the first iteration to utilise Toyota Racing Series cars (based on international Formula 3 regulations). The event was also the third race of the third round of the 2005–06 Toyota Racing Series.

Held in damp conditions, the race was won by Hamad Al Fardan after Andy Knight was disqualified after failing to head mechanical black flag warnings over a faulty rain light. In doing so, Al Fardan became the first international driver to win the New Zealand Grand Prix since Dean Hall in 1989.

Race report

Owing to the damp conditions, the standing start was scrapped in lieu of a single-file rolling start. Jay Howard led the field away from Chris van der Drift and Ben Harford. It was a tricky start for Harford, who spun twice in the opening stages, including one that left him stranded across the track at the final corner. Brendon Hartley took to the runoff in an evasive maneuver, but an unsighted Al Fardan failed to react in time and made like light contact with Harford, damaging the Bahraini's front wing.

The conditions continued to catch out drivers throughout the field, including race leader Howard, who speared off into the gravel trap at turn one. Second place driver, van der Drift, run wide just meters later and made contact with the wall. This ended both drivers' race and brought out the safety car. When the race resumed, Daniel Gaunt led from teammate Dale Williams. Despite suffering from a skewed front wing angle, Al Fardan began to set the pace and passed Hartley promptly for fourth place. Knight passed Gaunt for the lead around the outside of turn one, however he would be shown a mechanical black flag for a faulty rain light and was obligated to retreat to the pitlane.

Knight continued to ignore the black flags right until the finish. As a result, Knight was disqualified from the race and Al Fardan was declared the winner of the Grand Prix. Gaunt finished second and Hartley rounded out the podium.

Race classification

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Laps	Time
38	Bahrain Hamad Al Fardan	Team Meritus	34	48min 21.566sec	7
47	New Zealand Daniel Gaunt	International Motorsport	34	+ 1.154 s	5
28	New Zealand Brendon Hartley	Victory Motorsport	34	+ 1.406 s	8
20	New Zealand Daynom Templeman	Kiwi American Racing	34	+ 1.764 s	10
5	New Zealand Marc Doran	Auto Motion	34	+ 4.152 s	9
87	New Zealand Ben Crighton	Ben Crighton Racing	34	+ 6.446 s	13
9	New Zealand Matthew Hamilton	Karcher Racing	34	+ 7.034 s	16
15	New Zealand Marc Williams	Victory Motorsport	34	+ 13.975 s	11
4	New Zealand Andrew Higgins	Motorsport Solutions	34	+ 14.184 s	14
76	New Zealand Duane Spurdle	Spurdle Motorsport	34	+ 18.312 s	15
55	New Zealand Christina Orr	Mark Petch Motorsport	34	+ 18.760 s	12
66	New Zealand Hamish Cross	ESWA Racing	34	+ 45.230 s	17
7	New Zealand Ben Harford	Cobra Vehicle Security	33	+ 1 lap	3
48	New Zealand Dale Williams	International Motorsport	33	+ 1 lap	4
6	New Zealand Jayant Singh	Jayant Singh Motorsport	15	Retired	18
40	New Zealand Mark Munro	Auto Motion	9	Retired	19
22	GBR Jay Howard	Mark Petch Motorsport	8	Spun off	1
70	New Zealand Chris van der Drift	International Motorsport	8	Accident	2
11	New Zealand Ken Smith	Ken Smith Racing	0	Did Not Start
97	New Zealand Andy Knight	Knight Motorsport	34	Disqualified	6
Fastest Lap: Andy Knight (Knight Motorsport) on lap 30 – 1:01.545

References

New Zealand Herald. "Motorsport: Arab teenager wins rain-wrecked GP".
Speedhive MYLAPS. "R16 - Toyota Racing Series (3) - Grid".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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