Borg wins Toyota 86 racing series championship at Newcastle

** Aaron Borg wins series championship title after second race at Newcastle **

** Luke King takes a clean sweep of all three 86 races over the weekend **

** King second in the championship with 2018 champion Tim Brook in third **

Aaron Borg has won the 2019 Toyota 86 Racing Series Championship after an action-packed weekend of racing in the final round of the season at Newcastle.

Going into the weekend, Borg was only 20 points ahead of 2018 season winner Tim Brook, setting the scene for some tight racing.

After qualifying on pole and taking the lead into turn one for the first race on Saturday, Brook made a critical error that saw him slam into the tyre wall on turn two, with Jarrod Whitty, Luke van Herwaarde and Dylan Thomas all caught up in the incident.

Luke King, who had started at the front row of the grid alongside Brook, took the lead and held it through to the finish with Borg and Zane Morse, who had started in seventh and eighth slots, completing the podium in second and third place.

Brook's team managed to repair the car overnight for Sunday's first race but with Brook starting at the back of the grid, he faced a huge challenge and despite gaining 16 places to finish in 11^th in the second race of the weekend, he didn't gain enough points to challenge Borg's lead.

On the wet track, Borg drove a relatively conservative race to ensure the championship win, finishing in sixth, with King again leading from start to finish with a clear lead of over five seconds by lap six of the 13 lap race.

King eventually took the chequered flag on Sunday morning with a time of 19 minutes, 44.2754 seconds ahead of a hard charging Zane Morse and George Gutierrez, who both secured their first podium finishes for the season.

Speaking after the race Borg said it was a fantastic way to finish what had been a great year.

"We started at Phillip Island then had a few long breaks and from Bathurst onwards, it's been great for us coming through," Borg said.

"The boys behind me have been great, they are constantly on me making sure we are doing the right thing and we have done a lot of work with Driving Solutions as well. They have helped us a lot since Bathurst and that has been a great turn around," he said.

Heading into the final race of the season on Sunday afternoon, Brook, King, Dylan Thomas and Declan Fraser were all vying for the final two places on the podium for the season championship.

King led from pole with Morse close behind and Fraser moving into third on lap one.

But just into lap two, Brook tapped the back end of David Sieders who spun in the middle of the tight track, collecting Jaiden Maggs, Luke van Herwaarde and about four other cars in the process.

The safety car was called out, with Maggs, Sieders and van Herwaarde all out of the race as King, Morse and Fraser led the procession.

A restart on lap seven saw the three leaders along with 17-year-old Jaylyn Robotham and Gutierrez surge ahead as a lead pack before King crossed the line for his third win of the weekend ahead of Morse and Fraser.

The dramatic events of the weekend saw the minor placings on the leaderboard change from race to race with the final top five for the 2019 season being Borg, King, Brook, Fraser and Thomas.

Next year, the 86s will back on the track with the first race set to run as part of the Supercars Championship event at Winton in Victoria on 5-7 June.

Race 13 results:

1. Luke King
2. Aaron Borg
3. Zane Morse

Race 14 results:

1. Luke King
2. Zane Morse
3. George Gutierrez

Race 15 results:

1. Luke King
2. Zane Morse
3. Declan Fraser

2019 Toyota 86 Racing Series leaderboard:

*All results are provisional

THE TOYOTA 86 RACING SERIES

The Toyota 86 Racing Series is designed to provide an entry point and training ground for up-and-coming drivers, offering a prize pool of $150,000.

Top-three place rewards for the year are $50,000, $30,000 and $15,000. The coveted Kaizen Award for continuous improvement now includes prizes valued up to $35,000 including a fully funded trip to compete in an overseas round of the 86 racing series.

Open to variants of Toyota's cult-classic sports car, the series is part of the support program at selected rounds of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship.

2020 Toyota 86 Racing Series Calendar