Canterbury drivers may have the home advantage this weekend but Aucklander Taylor Cockerton is quietly confident heading into the fourth round of the Ace Hire South Island Formula Ford Championship. Also doubling as the second round of the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship, the racing takes place at the Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna, Christchurch. Current leader Marcus Armstrong from Christchurch has not entered, electing to focus on his Toyota Finance TR86 Championship campaign. Fellow Cantabrian Michael Collins is second in the series with a 25 point advantage over third placed Cockerton and has the chance to take over the series lead from Armstrong.
Cockerton heads into the weekend after two wins and a podium at the preceding round at Teretonga. “Obviously we are heading into the fourth round on the back of some good results from Teretonga,” commented Cockerton. “Since then we have done a lot of testing leading up to this weekend and I’m confident that we will have the pace.”
Cantabrians Ryan Yardley and Caleb Cross are both looking at moving up the points table and will be a threat to Collins and Cockerton. Yardley is just 15 points behind Cockerton with Cross a further 15 points behind. The round has three races with 20 points available for a win, 17 for second place and 14 for third.
With large and very competitive fields in this season’s series, driving standards have come under scrutiny from officials as the championship has progressed. With a number of crashes and driving infringements in the first three rounds, expectations on clean racing will be high with several drivers already carrying licence endorsements.
The focus by the top drivers will be on consistent fast driving. “It’s a circuit that rewards smooth driving,” said Cocketon. “It’s easy to over drive and the result of that is you just lose time.”
Within the series are three different classes. With Armstrong not competing Cockerton has the chance to take over the lead of Class 1 from Yardley and Cross. Collins is competing in a Class 2 car and currently leads the category from Dyson Freeman and Derek Wilson. Doug Price is the driver to beat in Class 3 having won 8/9 races in the series from Roger McKenzie and Dave McKenzie.
Two North Island drivers join the round with Paul Dold and Jordan Mountford making the trip south.
The fourth round also doubles as the second round of the national Formula Ford Series and is one of the support categories to the opening round of the 2015 Toyota Racing Series which sees twenty international drivers competing in three races. This will include the historic Lady Wigram Trophy race.
Competing in the Toyota Racing Series opening round are former and current national Formula Ford championship drivers James Munro and Jamie Conroy.
The South Island Formula Ford Club acknowledge the support of Ace Hire (Chch), Avon Tyres, Arai Helmets, Motorsport Solutions (NZ) and Newfield Autos (Invercargill).
