Photo: Matt Penrose
Firstly, the drivers love it owing to the variety of twists and turns with plenty of places to allow outbraking and overtaking while the spectators love it because they can see all the circuit from one location to appreciate all the on-track action. The ZOAGN New Zealand Formula Ford Championship provides just the sort of action spectators yearn for with plenty of slipstreaming, overtaking, nose to tail and side by side racing.
Going into Round Five it would be fair to say Hamilton ’s Martin Short has the upper hand having amassed seven race wins from twelve races to lead the championship by 143 points. Nick Cassidy ( Auckland ) has collected four wins to hold 2nd while Matt Williams has one win to his credit to follow just 12 points behind Cassidy.
Where the uncertainty arises is when one considers there a still 450 points on offer to be battled out over six races from this weekend and at Taupo Motorsport Park in March. As veteran motor racing TV commentator Murray Walker used to say “anything can happen and usually does” which means none of these drivers can start eyeing up the winner’s trophy just yet.
Last season’s racing at Manfeild saw the championship points leaders falter after some dramatic racing saw Matthew Penrose (Rangiora) take the round honours. If any of the front three slip up this year we could again see the championship go down to the wire and Penrose will be back hoping to sniff out any similar opportunity. Invercargill’s Damon Leitch has had a frustrating season to date but has shown some excellent speed which could see him regain the points lead although he is chased by a group of ever improving youngsters in their debut season.
Included in these are Andre Heimgartner ( Auckland ), brothers Tim and Richard Vickers ( Auckland ) and 12 year old Christchurch driver Scott Manson. Throw Nelson’s Brett Sullivan into the mix and it will be game on as the lights go out for the opening race and any mistakes could prove very costly.
This weekend’s Round 5 Qualifying will take place at 9:45am on Saturday with Race 1 (10 laps) set to start at 3:15pm. Race 2 (10 laps) will start at 9:25am on Sunday with Race 3 (12 laps) running at the unusually late time of 5:05pm.
