Invercargill driver Jamie Conroy maintained his winning sequence in the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship at Timaru this weekend. Conroy has now won nine races in a row and has yet to be beaten in the championship. At Timaru he chalked up his second successive perfect weekend, taking pole position in qualifying and then going on to win all three races, leading every lap of the weekend.

As he did at Teretonga last week Conroy set the pace in his Mygale during qualifying with a fastest lap .375 of a second ahead of American Andrew Hobbs, a grandson of racing legend David Hobbs, while Conroy’s main championship rival, Michael Collins of Christchurch, could only manage fourth.

Conroy made the best start in the opening race on Saturday afternoon immediately taking the lead from Hobbs. A safety car period after three laps closed the field up but at the restart the twenty-two year old accelerated away to win his seventh straight race in the championship by 1.309 seconds from Collins who had worked his way up to second.

Conroy again made a good start to Sunday morning’s race and led away from Hobbs with Collins in third. Again the safety car was required for a stricken car mid race, bunching the field up again. The restart came with just two laps to go and again Conroy blasted away and crossed the line ahead of Collins who got through to second on the final lap with Hobbs third.

In the final race on Sunday afternoon Conroy again took the lead off the line and was never headed. A clear run without any interruptions saw him extend his lead to almost 5 seconds at the chequered flag with Collins and Hobbs in his wake.

“I’m super proud of my team,” said Jamie as he prepared to leave the circuit on Sunday evening. “The car they keep giving me is just so consistent. It makes it a whole lot easier. I kept concentrating on making good starts and nailing that first lap, trying to break the draft but in the first two races the safety car bunched the field up again.”

The weekend helped the Southlander to extend his New Zealand Formula Ford Championship lead while he has now closed to within two points of Collins in the Ace Hire South Island Formula Ford Championship.

The next round of the New Zealand Championship takes place at Hampton Downs in North Waikato over the weekend of 1/2 February.

Jamie Conroy’s Formula Ford campaign is supported by Horgan Farms, Evolution Motorsport, Progressive Engineering Southland Ltd, Waikato Milking Systems, Gulf, John Deere, Gallagher, SP Tools, Hydraulink, George Wilson Sales Ltd, Sievwright Auto, PPG, E Hayes, Southern Wide Real Estate, Radcliffe Electrical and R & A Williams.