Skip to content

ff1600

NSW Formula ford championship ...breeding legends
Home
Oran Park Raceway - The Final Goodbye PDF Print E-mail
Written by NSW Formula Ford Media   
Wednesday, 04 November 2009
A huge field of 32 drivers converged at Oran Park Raceway (Narellan, NSW) last weekend to farewell the circuit with the running of the sixth and final round of the NSW Formula Ford 1600 Championship and proceedings were dominated by Leigh Burges.

With the NSW Formula Ford 1600 Championship already in the bag, Burges, who drove # 33 Spirit WL08 for the Anglo Australian Motorsport team, scored another clean sweep of the weekend by taking pole position on Saturday morning and then comfortably winning all three races.

Aside from the brilliant form of Burges over the weekend two of the most impressive results came via Alan Price and Derryn Harrison. Both drivers achieved their career best results and were rapt with how their weekends ended up. Price finished second in all three races, while Harrison wrapped up his weekend with a third place finish in the final race, after finishing sixth and fifth in race one and two. This was without a doubt his best ever result since stepping into Formula Ford five years ago.

Veteran John Smith performed strongly by qualifying eighth in his ‘Historic’ class based Lola and then moving forward in both race one and two to finish fourth and then third. However, in the final race Smith didn’t have the best of runs and as a result finished back in a disappointing 11th place.

Adam Leung secured second place in the final NSW Championship point standings and the ‘Rookie of the Year’ award by recording a third place finish in the opening race. Leung placed fourth in the second race and then finished off the weekend with a sixth place in the final race.

Last round sensation Richard Goddard returned for his second Formula Ford race meeting with the Anglo Australian Motorsport team. After qualifying second Goddard wasn’t able to maintain his top three running form for the remainder of the weekend. Goddard finished fifth in the opening race, then fell back to finish in 13th for race two and then moved forward to place fourth in the final race.

Another standout performer was Robert Rowe, who made a return to Formula Ford after 10 years for the Oran Park Raceway farewell, and he worked his way inside the top 10 over the weekend and showed that he had lost none of his ability behind the wheel despite a long absence.

Other strong results were achieved by Ryan Campbell, Victorian Gavin Dumas, Jason Liddell, David Holland and Gerard McLeod who all featured inside the top 10 on occasions during the weekend.

Hard luck stories came from Daniel Lewis, Matt McGill, Russell Newell and David Chitty. All four drivers didn’t have the best of weekend, with all involved in separate crashes at various stages of the race meeting; Chitty was the only driver unable to complete the weekend. Lewis, McGill and Newell team’s each worked their hands to the bone to make it out for the final race. In fact both Lewis and Newell were forced to have vital parts flown over night from interstate just so that they could finish off the weekend.

Young Emma Brown made her Formula Ford debut at the NSW Championship finale and the Karting graduate enjoyed a trouble free outing. She finished off the weekend with her best result, a 19th place in the final race.

Cas Galjaardt wrapped up back-to-back NSW Championships for the ‘Historic’ class with a strong weekend where he battled for overall class honours with John Pymble and Steve Weller. Galjaardt took out second behind Smith in the final race for the class and saw him work his way towards the top 10 runners outright.

It was a huge weekend for Oran Park Raceway farewell as Jeff Senior, who brought out his Formula Ford for the weekend, from the NSW Formula Ford 1600 Association expressed,

“To have 32 Formula Ford drivers take part for the Oran Park Raceway farewell was quite a sight and the racing was fabulous,” he said. “I couldn’t think of better way to say goodbye to Oran Park Raceway with a full field of Formula Fords and it was great that everyone came out to support the weekend.”         

Final 2009 NSW Formula Ford 1600 Championship point standings (after six completed rounds):
1 Leigh Burges – 510 points
2 Adam Leung – 378
3 Daniel Lewis – 261
4 Jason Liddell – 2542 
5 Derryn Harrison - 230

-ENDS RELEASE-

 
< Prev   Next >

Newsflash

Fiesta class Formula Fords have been approved to enter the 2010 NSW Formula Ford Championship. The 1600cc Kent cars will still be the Championship Class.
 

Upcoming Events

There are no upcoming events!