Jamie Conroy of Invercargill is the 2013/2014 New Zealand Formula Ford Champion. Twenty-two year old Conroy sealed the title when he won the second race of the final round at Taupo Motorsport Park on Sunday morning.
Conroy went to Taupo with a 97 point lead over Christchurch driver Michael Collins and started the weekend with the fastest time in Saturday morning’s qualifying session to take pole position for Saturday afternoon’s 10 lap race by over half a second from veteran Kim Crocker. Crocker led early in that first race after the Southlander had a clutch problem off the line but Conroy was quickly into the lead, pulling away to win by over six seconds from Collins who worked his way through from further down the grid.
That extended Jamie’s points lead to 105 points and victory in the second race of the round early on Sunday gave him an unassailable lead in the championship. In winning the title Conroy become one of only a select few who have achieved the feat in their rookie year.
After sealing the title Conroy was back on track for Sunday afternoon’s final race over 12 laps to take another victory, his sixteenth out of eighteen races. In a dominant season he also won five of the six rounds that constitute the championship. It was only at the fourth round at Hampton Downs that motor problems in two races cost him the chance to clean sweep the championship.
An elated Conroy said that the penultimate race on Sunday morning had been a “pretty nervous race.” “I led from start to finish and the Mygale ran beautifully. There was a sigh of relief when I crossed the line.” Having clinched the title Conroy said, “it means the world to me.” “I’m happy for the whole team. They were over the moon! The championship was in everyones mind when we started and it was great to see it unfold. It was great that all our sponsors got to see what we could do.” Conroy also acknowledged Greg Woodrow of Mygale Australia who suggested some tweaks for Conroy’s Mygale chassis prior to the round.
Conroy and the team will now focus on the final round of the South Island Formula Ford Championship which will be decided at Mike Pero Motorsport Park at Ruapuna in Christchurch in a fortnight. Collins narrowly leads Conroy in that title race.
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.
