Over the three races Simpson managed to come through for victory in all of them, and completed his clean sweep of the round by taking the top spot in qualifying earlier on Saturday morning. Simpson’s closest rival so far this year, Tweedie, once again proved Simpson’s only real concern around the 2.62km Oran Park circuit, but it still wasn’t enough to deny him of a clean sweep of the weekend’s round proceedings. After his third win in succession has now built up a 36 point buffer over his nearest rival, Tweedie, in the NSW Formula Ford 1600 Championship standings, and Simpson is just after the half way mark of the championship proving that he will take some beating.

As one could imagine Simpson is rapt with his current run of form, but is not getting too carried away with his successful start to the year.

“There are still three more rounds to go in the championship, and although it’s looking good, I’m not counting my chickens until they are hatched,” Simpson expressed.

Tweedie ended the weekend in second place again in the third and final race, after placing fourth (a spin on the final lap of race two saw him lose second and finish down in fourth spot) and second in the previous two races.

“We were right on the pace with Ryan [Simpson] for the entire weekend, it was just he didn’t make a mistake to help capitalise on, as he is a very smooth driver,” Tweedie explained.

“I’m very much looking forward to returning back to Oran Park for the next round, and the aim is to add to my single race win this year and break through for my first round of the year.” Making his first appearance on the podium this year was South Coast based Daniel Lewis who was able to benefit from the late incident involving Nathan Morcom and Adam Lucas during the closing laps of the final race to finish on the podium in third place.

“The weekend didn’t start off the best as I battled a number of mechanical issues, but got it together in the second race where I came from the rear of the grid up to fifth, and then in the third and final race I was able to sneak through for third place when Nathan [Morcom] and Adam [Lucas]} came together,” conceded a very pleased Lewis.

“I certainly wasn’t a third place car, but I was fortunate enough to be in the right place at the time and finish on the podium.”

In qualifying it was an Anglo Australian Motorsport 1, 2, 3, with Simpson, Tweedie and Morcom, and they continued that precision in the opening race too. The second race saw Simpson come from behind to defeat Morcom and a hard charging Lucas who had started from the rear of the grid after second placed Tweedie spun out on the final lap and dropped back to finish in fourth.

The best of the Historic Formula Fords was Greg Watson who was well inside the Top 10 throughout the weekend , with Matley, Pymble, Weller and Galjaardt all having a great weekends racing. The Historic car drivers are relishing their involvement with the NSW championship providing them good racing and camaraderie throughout the field.

Round four of the NSW Formula Ford 1600 Championship is set down for July 26 – 27 back at Oran Park Raceway.

Latest NSW Formula Ford 1600 Championship Point Standings (after three completed rounds):

1 Ryan Simpson – 266 points

2 Tom Tweedie – 230

 3 Bruce McCabe – 166

 4 Adam Lucas – 148

 5 Daniel Lewis – 148

6 Nathan Morcom – 135

 7 Matthew Howard – 132

 8 James Stewart – 120

9 Russell Newell – 111

For more information about the NSW Formula Ford 1600 Championship or Oran Park Raceway visit: www.ff1600.org.au or www.oranpark.com.au