Christchurch school boy Caleb Cross has won the second round of the Ace Hire South Island Formula Ford Championship held at Timaru International Raceway over the weekend. The 14 year old won his first single seater race and crossed the line in second for the remaining two races of the round. While a 15 second time penalty relegated Cross from second to seventh in the final race, he had gained enough points to win the round and now lies third in the championship.
“I’m quite thrilled to get my first win for the season,” commented Cross. “It’s great for the team as we have done a lot of preparation going into the round. I was very focused on gaining points and not doing anything stupid. The car was just great, it really felt alive.”
Last week it was announced that Cross had joined the Prodrive Racing Academy, a new initiative founded by Prodrive Racing in Australia. Prodrive are owners of the back to back Bathurst winning V8 Supercar team Pepsi Max Crew FPR and will use the academy to develop race skills in up and coming drivers, particularly towards a V8 career.
Qualifying early on Saturday morning showed how tough the competition would be with the top five drivers within 0.1 seconds of each other. Cross was second quickest to karting rival Marcus Armstrong with Michael Scott third, ahead of Taylor Cockerton and Michael Collins.
The first seven lap race was a thriller with Armstrong (Stealth) vigorously defending his lead from the more experienced Michael Collins (Van Diemen). However the two were to clash with three laps remaining sending Collins into the wall and abruptly ending his weekend.
Officials’ red flagged the race and later disqualified Armstrong. Results are taken from the previous lap to the race ending stoppage which gave Collins the win; Cross (Mygale) was second followed by Ryan Yardley (van Diemen Stealth) and Michael Scott (Mygale).
“Obviously we got some good results overall from the weekend,” commented Armstrong. “The DQ wasn’t in the plan. We won on the circuit but not in the steward’s office, so we still consider it a win.“
Collins took a different view, “I got a run on the inside but was blocked and had nowhere to go and ended up hitting the wall. It was unnecessary.”
In the second 10 lap race of the day, Cross beat Armstrong into the first corner and held on for his first win. Armstrong took his first points for the day finishing second with Yardley third, followed by Scott, Aaron Marr (Mygale), Dyson Freeman (Van Diemen) and Grant Campbell (Van Diemen).
Armstrong then won the third and final race of the day, holding out Cross who was relegated to seventh by officials after tangling with Yardley. Second then went to Scott followed by Cockerton (Mygale), Tom Alexander (Stealth) and Freeman.
Despite the setbacks in race one, on the provisional points table Armstrong still leads both Class 1 and the overall the Ace Hire Series on 96 points while Collins maintains second on 74 but just one point ahead of Cross (73).
Collins slips to third in the Class 2 points table with Dyson Freeman now leading from Trevor Stiles. Doug Price continues to pile on the points in the Historics Class 3 and leads from Roger McKenzie and Dave McKenzie.
The round also doubled as the opening round of six in the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship which Cross now leads from Armstrong and Marr.
Ken Smith had hoped to compete in this round but after Friday practice, handed the seat over to Tom Alexander.
The next round takes place in three weeks’ time at Teretonga Park, Invercargill.
The South Island Formula Ford Club acknowledge the support of Ace Hire (Chch), Avon Tyres, Arai Helmets, Motorsport Solutions (NZ) and Newfield Autos (Invercargill).
