The 2017 Lady Wigram Trophy was the 56th running of the Lady Wigram Trophy and served as the first round of the

2017 Toyota Racing Series The 2017 Castrol Toyota Racing Series was the thirteenth running of the Toyota Racing Series, the premier open-wheeler, open-wheel motorsport category held in New Zealand. The series consisted of fifteen races at five meetings. It began on 14 Janu ...

. The event was held at the

Mike Pero Motorsport Park Mike Pero Motorsport Park (often referred to as Ruapuna) is a permanent motor racing circuit owned and operated by the Canterbury Car Club Inc on land leased from the Christchurch City Council. It is located at 107 Hasketts Road in Templeton, ...

, in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

from 13 to 15 January 2017. The defending Lady Wigram Trophy winner was

Force India Force India Formula One Team Limited, commonly known as Force India and later Sahara Force India, was a Formula One racing team and constructor based in Silverstone, United Kingdom, with an Indian licence. The team was formed in October 20 ...

protégé,

Jehan Daruvala Jehan Daruvala (born 1 October 1998) is an Indian racing driver currently serving as a reserve driver for the Mahindra Racing Formula E team. He was a protégé of the Force India F1 team, after being one of three winners of a 'One in a Billio ...

. He would repeat his feat by winning the Lady Wigram Trophy for the second year in a row.

Background

The

sees the highest number of returning drivers (Brendon Leitch,

Thomas Randle Thomas Randle (born 7 April 1996) is an Australian racing driver. He currently races in the Supercars Championship for Tickford Racing in the No. 55 Ford Mustang GT. Randle has also won the 2014 Australian Formula Ford Series, 2017 Toyota Racing ...

Pedro Piquet Pedro Estácio Leão Piquet Souto Maior (born 3 July 1998) is a Brazilian former racing driver. He is the son of three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet and younger half brother of Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr. He is known for ...

, Ferdinand Habsburg, Kami Laliberté and Taylor Cockerton) since 2013 with seven. Defending champion,

Lando Norris Lando Norris (born 13 November 1999) is a Belgian-British racing driver currently competing in Formula One with McLaren, racing under the British flag. He won the MSA Formula championship in 2015, and the Toyota Racing Series, Eurocup Formul ...

initially announced intentions to return to the series for 2017 to defend his title. However, he later announced his withdrawal. The vacant seat would be taken by Frenchman, Jean Baptiste Simmenauer.

Report

Practice

For the first practice session of the weekend, Enaam Ahmed achieved the fastest lap time with a 1:18.200, followed closely by

and Richard Verschoor. The session was relatively clean, with only two spins in the session ( Andres and Laliberté). The second practice session was equally as uneventful with

lowering the best time down to a 1:18.147, with the closest two rivals being

Shelby Blackstock Shelby Steven McEntire Blackstock (born February 23, 1990) is an American race car driver. He is the son of country music singer Reba McEntire and her ex-husband Narvel Blackstock. His older half-brother, Brandon Blackstock, was formerly married ...

and

. For the third and final practice session, several drivers broke into the 17's, with Taylor Cockerton being the fastest of all with a 1:17.383. He was followed by Thomas Randle and Enaam Ahmed.

Race 1

Qualifying

Jehan Daruvala continued his fine form at the Mike Pero Motorsport Park by grabbing the first pole position of the year with a 1:17.424.

Race

After a great start from Daruvala, a safety car caused by Enders stranded car closed the field up once again. On the restart, Armstrong got onto the gearbox of Daruvala, and committed to a brave move around the outside to take the lead and ultimately the win.

Race 2

In the reverse grid race, Thomas Randle took his first Toyota Racing Series win, followed by Verschoor and Armstrong. When crossing the line Taylor Cockerton was first, followed by Piquet and Randle. Cockerton and Piquet got a time penalty and therefore dropped in the race result.

Race 3

Qualifying

Daruvala once again took the pole with a tight margin over Armstrong and Ahmed.

Race

In what was an incident-marred race, Daruvala took his second consecutive Lady Wigram Trophy with Ahmed and Piquet rounding out the podium.

Championship standings

;Drivers' Championship standings

References

{{Reflist Lady Wigram Trophy Lady Wigram Trophy Lady Wigram Trophy