We were up early in the morning over the weekend to head off for the 3rd round of the NZ Formula Ford championship.
The weekend began down in Invercargill at Teretonga, a fresh track I had never even seen before.
I had heard myths and legends about turn 1, as I went out the gate for the first time, I just wondered when it would end, the curb went past.. It just kept on going. From there the track had a short run down to turn 2, before a full-throttle blast through the infield, onto the back straight, and around the elbow to enter onto the long back straight to start a new lap, with a target lap time in the mid 1:03’s.
The practice sessions sailed by, and we were into qualifying early on Saturday morning, I made sure to get a good lap in right away, and at that point I had the car on P1 before I got knocked down to P2, sitting there for a lot of the session, before getting bumped down to 4th to start the opening race.
This time we went in with plenty of fresh tyres, not needing any sort of strategy to save rubber. I was ready to send it!
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What could have been… Race 1 began well, as I had a good start, making up positions.
Unfortunately, we ran into some issues with 3rd gear jumping out of place, knocking me off the pace I needed to stay with the front bunch. As I was running down towards the hairpin, and the car jumped into 4th, when I got on the brakes to enter ‘hairpin’ and shifted back down to 2nd, I got a slide-on early into the corner, and couldn’t save it as the rear came around and I spun-dropping me down to a P10 finish.
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Sunday opened with Race 2, after we had sorted out our issues with 3rd gear yesterday, I came into the race with hopes of having some good battles up the front.
I came off the line and made my way up to 3rd, I dropped down places, but had a good battle in amongst the pack and didn’t make it easy. I came across the line in P5
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Then came Race 3, the best one of the weekend, in this race I got off the line well again and moved up to P4, from P5. I caught the draft of Daniel Brown, and we had an amazing battle throughout the race, with moves being thrown in on the inside, outside and anywhere we could find a gap. I crossed the line in 3rd, super happy to be on the podium!
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The final race of the weekend, Race 4. I was on grid 6 for this race, and couldn’t make up any positions, I was pushing my hardest to stay on the back of the front pack while feeling down on power and the tow was just keeping me in there. While circulating in 6th a car just behind me had a massive mechanical failure, going into the wall really hard and bringing out the safety car. The race finished under the safety car and I came across the line in 6th.
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After a long 2 days at school, before heading down south, I’m feeling all set to send it again this weekend at Ruapuna!
