Whilst the 2010 championship is shaping up to be a hard and closely fought affair for outright championship honours for the Formula Ford 1600 class, the inclusion of the Fiesta Class cars will also attract a lot of attention in their own battle for class honours. Not to be outdone, the Classic and Historic classes will definitely also put on a show throughout the year.

So the stage has been set with an exciting season ahead fought out over a total of five rounds between both Eastern Creek Raceway and Wakefield Park Raceway circuits.

In the NSW Championship class, it was Anglo Australian Motorsport team driver Richard “Spike” Goddard that came away with the winning spoils. Goddard, who was only in his fourth ever Formula Ford race meeting, came out on top of the time sheets in qualifying and then won all three races. Goddard’s closest threat all weekend was his Anglo Australian Motorsport team-mate Adam Leung who ended up finishing second in all three races and also qualifying. If the opening round is of any indication, then the battle for the top honours in the NSW Championship is likely to be fought out between Goddard and Leung.

Tom Tweedie put on an impressive performance in his ‘Classic’ Van Diemen to not only qualify third outright but also finish third outright in all three races. Keeping Tweedie honest were both Derryn Harrison and come-back racer Ryan Campbell had strong weekends.

Harrison picked up fourth in both race one and two, while Campbell got the upper hand in the third and final race to claim fourth. Newcomer Jon Collins impressed many with top six results in all three races and there is no doubt that he is going to be a force to be reckoned with in future rounds and having trouble free weekends were fellow rookies Darryl Hall and Emma Brown. Listec Racing driver Russell Newell and Anglo Australian Motorsport rookie Steve Charman had mixed weekends and they are no doubt looking to bounce back at the next round.

The Fiesta class was dominated by Synergy Motorsport driver Daniel Cotton after he came away with all three races and also qualifying. Listec Racing’s Alan Price was unable to challenge Cotton and finished third in the opening race and then second in both race two and three.

Youngster Stefan Borsato in the second Synergy Motorsport car impressed many with a second place in race one and he then backed that up in race two and three with third place finishes. Former leading V8 Supercar privateer Peter Doulman struggled with engine gremlins all weekend, preventing him running in race two and finishing in fourth in races one and three.

Continuing on with his impressive performances last year in the Classic class, formerly known as the Pre 90, Australian Formula 3 Championship driver Tom Tweedie finished on top all weekend in qualifying and all three races. Tweedie showed a great turn of speed throughout the weekend and actually mixed it with many of his model car driven rivals. Following Tweedie in all races over the weekend were Doug Matley and Ross Firth who both had enjoyable weekends. Firth had the quote of the weekend “You know what, it’s no good watching, you have to get into this. It’s great!”

Greg Watson was the dominant figure in the Historic class and drove to wins in all three races. Consistent Historic performer Steve Weller got the hard luck award of the weekend whose car “failed to proceed” after one lap in qualifying, however he will return for the next round. 

The second round of the NSW Championship is to be held at Goulburn’s Wakefield Park Raceway on the weekend of April 10 and 11.          

-ENDS RELEASE-