Five drivers from Canterbury are expected to be the front runners contesting for the round win at the Ace Hire South Island Formula Ford Championship this weekend at Teretonga Park in Invercargill. Christchurch school boy Marcus Armstrong currently leads the series on 96 points from rival Caleb Cross (75 points) who is just one ahead of Michael Collins with Ryan Yardley close behind. However the dark horse for the weekend could be fellow Cantabrian and now Auckland based Henry Thomas-Kircher who comes with extensive single seater race experience in the class.
“I’m looking forward to learning the circuit and covering some more kms,” commented Armstrong. “I’m going there with an open mind so I will see what we can do.” Armstrong is also campaigning this season in the Toyota Finance TR86 championship with a round at Teretonga coming up in January 2015.
Competition will be tough as Cross convincingly won the second round at the beginning of November at Timaru International Raceway and is definitely on a mission to win both the Ace Hire Series and the national championship as well.
Collins will be a resurgent force to be reckoned with after being taken out of the first race at Timaru. The electrical apprentice crashed heavily but was awarded the win after the race had been red flagged by officials. Having to miss the last two races of the round, the Collins team has spent some long hours rebuilding the chassis and replaced many damaged parts in time for the third round. In finishing four of the six races so far, Collins has won two and finished second in the others and will no doubt be determined to make up the lost ground. He is just one point behind Cross.
Thomas-Kircher comes into the series having been involved with a number of both South Island and national Formula Ford campaigns. His father David competed at the first two rounds this season and has stepped out of the Van Diement Stealth, giving Henry the opportunity to compete.
Yardley will also be a threat having finished all six races in the points with three of these on the podium. He is currently on 60 points.
A field of between 15-20 cars are expected to compete for overall honours as well as for three different Classes. While Armstong, Cross, Yardley and Thomas-Kircher are in Class 1, Collins is competing in an older Class 2 car. He has some ground to make up on Dyson Freeman who leads Class 2 on 91 points from Derek Wilson (82) and Collins (80).
In Class 3 Doug Price leads on 120 points having won all six races. Second is Roger McKenzie (90) followed by Dave McKenzie (58).
The South Island Formula Ford Club acknowledge the support of Ace Hire (Chch), Avon Tyres, Arai Helmets, Motorsport Solutions (NZ) and Newfield Autos (Invercargill).
