Oran Park Raceway over the years has been the venue where winning streaks have ended, a prime example of this was Joel Spychala' of 2004, and that trend continued last weekend (June 17 - 18) during the third round of the New South Wales (NSW) Formula Ford Championship when youngster Nick Lowe ended Championship leader Ben Morley' run of eight consecutive race wins.

Lowe, driving the former Paul Laskazeski Spectrum 010B, tasted success in the third and final race of the weekend via defeating Morley by half a car length. However, the rest of the weekend was dominated by Morley who topped qualifying and took out race one and two, which kept his handy Championship lead intact.

Back in 2004 it was Victorian Greg Woodrow who ended the run of seven wins on the trot for NSW Champion of that year Joel Spychala, but Morley was able to go one better by taking his winning run to a total of eight before succumbing to defeat.

For Lowe, who kept Morley under the pump over the weekend, was thrilled to become only the second driver in this year's NSW Championship to register a race win. Lowe commented that he hopes this is the first of many wins as he attempts to climb an uphill battle to wrestle away the NSW Championship from Morley.

"It was fantastic to be the driver to finally beat Ben (Morley) and I was really happy with my weekend overall," a jubilant Lowe said.

"The only area that hampered me was my starts and I need to do more practice there in order to get off the line better.

"My bad starts saw me play catch-up from the start and you cannot give a driver like Morley a break like that and that was proven in race one and two.

"In the third race I got a better start and that allowed me to stay with him (Morley) for the entire race and I was able to make a clean pass for the lead.

"I guess my lack of experience in race one and two didn't give me enough confidence to make a pass on Morley as I had more pace especially in race one, but that just comes down to my race craft, which will be developed with more track time."

The weekend kicked off with Morley coming out on top in Saturday mornings qualifying session by posting a best lap of 1:13.2817 ahead of Lowe (1:13.6520), Stephen Payne (1:13.8823), Kristian Lindbom (1:14.0543) and 2002 NSW Champion Matthew Howard (1:14.0554) completing the Top 5 in the 15 minute session.

For CAMS Rising Star Lindbom he crashed heavily into the wall in the final corner only a handful of laps into the session. This was Lindbom' second crash after he made heavy contact with the wall in the same spot during Friday's practice. These two crashes were traced back to a component failure in the rear end of his Spectrum 010B.

Hard work from the Borland Racing Developments team after both crashes allowed Lindbom to get back out on the track. Unfortunately due to the amount of damage sustained in the second crash Lindbom was forced to sit out the opening race.

On Saturday afternoon, race one (6 laps) saw an all the way win to Morley who led from start to finish, but he was kept honest by Lowe in the closing stages and finished only half a car length behind him at the chequered flag. In third was Howard, followed by Payne, Kyle Wood, Glenn Welch, Andrew Taite, Leigh Burgess, Daniel Cotton and Alan Price in 10th.

Newcomer Chris Goodman had a scary experience on the opening lap when he spun in the middle of the field on the back section at the track after qualifying 13th and he was very lucky not to be collected. Goodman was able to retreat on to the infield and took no further part in the event.

The following day (Sunday) for race two and three wins were recorded by Morley and Lowe respectively. Action was aplenty in race two and three with a number of drivers in the wars around the 2.6 kilometre Grand Prix circuit.

In the second race (8 laps) Morley took his winning streak to eight after the event was interrupted by a safety car period due to an opening lap collision between Matt McGill and Jason Liddell that resulted in front end damage to both racers and ended their weekend's right there and then.

This incident occurred when a fast starting McGill (up to eighth at the time) put a wheel off the track over the back section and spun out, the majority of the field managed to miss him (McGill), but Liddell didn't after his vision was obscured by the car ahead of him and made heavy contact with McGill.

"Yeah, it was a big hit and ended our weekend, which is really disappointed when I was performing so strongly," admitted McGill shortly after the incident.

"The contact by Liddell caused quite a bit of damage to both of our cars, and at the end of the day it was unfortunate.

"I made a mistake whilst pushing the limits as my car (Swift 92) is a lot older compared to many of my rivals so I have to push that little bit more to get the most out of it, and I guess I pushed too hard."

While the Liddell and McGill cars were cleared from the circuit, the safety car was deployed and after two laps the safety car was reverted back to the pits on the fourth lap. Morley powered away at the restart followed by Payne and Howard. Further back in the pack, in turn one Taite and Wood made contact which saw both cars spin off the track after a car ahead of them locked its brakes.

Taite was able to continue on and Wood was unable to restart his car and recorded a non finish. In that section of the track (turn one and two) a yellow flag was brought out for the remaining four laps of the race. On the sixth lap Victorian based State racer Gavin Dumas spun off the track and into the sand trap in turn two, but this didn't bring out the safety car.

Out in front, Morley held a comfortable advantage all the way to the finish line defeating Lowe, Payne, Howard, Burgess, then came the battling threesome of Cotton, Welch and a rear of field starting Lindbom in eighth and rounding out the Top 10 was Derryn Harrison and Alan Price.

The battle for the honours in race three was the highlight of the day between Morley and Lowe. In a classic case of youth (Lowe) versus experience (Morley) over the 10 lap distance it wasn't decided until the pair greeted the finish line.

After starting from pole position, Morley got away to a clean start and led the field at the drop of the green flag with Lowe and Howard following closely in tow. As the field entered turns one and two for the first time Harrison copped a hit from behind and spun around, this resulted in cars going left, right and centre.

Unfortunately for Price he was unable to miss making contact with Harrison, and this caused damage to both cars in question. Price limped to a stop just under the Bridgestone Bridge with damage to the left hand wishbone, and a flat front tyre. Harrison was able to make his way back to the pits to change a rear tyre, but after returning to the track he later retired a few laps later with engine gremlins.

Out at the front of the pack Morley led the field, as had been the case all weekend, but he was being closely followed by Lowe, who was doing his utmost best to find a way into the lead. On the fifth lap the good run of Payne who was well placed in third came to an end when he retired to the pits after a top suspension arm failed and consequently ripped the driveshaft out in the process.

As Payne limped to the pits, the battle up front had intensified between Morley and Lowe and on lap 6 Lowe got the draft on Morley down the main straight and made the winning pass going into the opening turn. The pair was stuck together like superglue for the remaining laps; Lowe was able to hold on for victory closely followed by Morley, who had his run on to the main straight with the chequered flag in sight hampered by a lapped car.

"Lowe got the lucky break (with the lapped car) on me going onto the main straight as I felt I had a good run, and full credit must go to him as he drove very well," conceded Morley.

Lindbom fought back from a disastrous start to the weekend to claim third in race three, ahead of Howard, Burgess, Welch, Taite, Wood, Cotton (who had spun in the latter laps whilst placed seventh coming off the Bridgestone Bridge) and Goodman finishing in 10th.

Overall it was a fantastic weekend of racing in the NSW Championship, and now Lowe has broken Morley's winning ways, what's in store for the remainder of the year? Only time will tell!

Round four of the NSW Championship returns to Oran Park Raceway on July 29 - 30.

For further information on the NSW Formula Ford Championship visit their official website: www.ff1600.org.au

Latest NSW Formula Ford Championship Point Standings (after three completed rounds):
1 Ben Morley - 266
2 Nick Lowe - 178
3 Stephen Payne - 158
4 Kristian Lindbom - 155
5 Glenn Welch - 144
6 Matthew Howard - 142
7 Daniel Cotton - 133
8 Kyle Wood - 126
9 Leigh Burgess - 108
10 Andrew Taite - 94