Whanganui’s Aaron Marr has held his lead in the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship despite his rival Michael Scott winning two of the three races held at the Mike Pero Motorsport Park in Christchurch over the weekend.
The second round of the national series also doubled as the fourth round of the South Island Formula Ford (SIFF) Championship which saw a total of 23 cars take to the grid.
Australian based Kiwi Mitchell Maddren won the SIFF round with a consistent performance all weekend. He has now closed the gap to leader Hunter McElrea to just 12 points. Fifteen year old McElrea won the first two races in the SIFF championship but a broken steering arm saw him miss out on points in the final race of the day. Fortunately for McElrea this happened on the warm up lap when his race came to an abrupt halt safely in the kitty litter.
“It’s been a great weekend,” commented Maddren. “We had some engine problems at the last round but seemed to have ironed them out. It’s been a lot of fun and l look forward to Teretonga next weekend as it’s a fast flowing track which I really enjoy,”
Wet conditions affected all drivers on both Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. In the first 10 lapper, Scott, who qualified fastest, had to combat a throttle which was stuck on full and physically had to turn the ignition off before heading into a corner. Initially dropping back to fifth he was able to stay close to the leaders and eventually passed Maddren on the line to salvage fourth place overall. Drive of the day went to James Webb who drove from 13th through to finishing third. Further back in the pack an entertaining battle endued between Trevor Stiles, Tim Miles, Dyson Freeman, Gary Lovie, Anna Collins, Grant Campbell and Ethan Anderson. One of many mid-pack battles that would continue throughout the weekend.
Michael Scott took control of a second wet 10 lap race on Sunday morning. After too much wheel spin off the start line dropped him to fourth he was able to take back the lead by the end of the first lap.
“It was a terrible start,” commented Scott. “It just kept on wheel spinning but I was able to get up to second by turn two and went around Aaron (Marr) through the carousel. We had a great car today which enabled me to control the race. The biggest problem was my visor kept fogging up.”
Marr was able to just hold second from a hard charging Webb. “We didn’t have the grip in that race,” commented Marr. “By the end of the race the car was going ‘off’ and was getting hard to control.”
In the final 12 lap race Marr took the lead when Scott again experienced too much wheel spin off the line. He was followed closely by Webb and Scott. Just before half way Scott had retaken the lead and the three put a gap on the field. Behind them Maddren held a steady fourth with Anderson and Andy McElrea battling for fifth until the latter pitted with an overheating issue. Dyson Freeman eventually grabbed fifth from Anderson with Robert Toshach seventh. Grant Campbell, Tim Miles and Jordan Michels fought for most of the race for 8th, 9th and 10th, finishing in that order.
“I’m stoked to get two wins,” commented Scott. “We are now confident of the car’s speed. In the third race we had a wet set up so started to drop back towards Aaron (Marr) as the circuit continued to dry.”
Hunter McElrea continues to lead the SIFF championship overall as well as Class 2 with rookie Anna Collins second.
“We’ve had some great races,” said Collins. “We’ve had more wet races than dry so have got some great confidence and really enjoying them.”
Maddren is now level on points with Anderson in Class 1 while in Class 3 Cory Hodges continues to lead from Roger McKenzie.
The fifth round of the SIFF takes place this coming weekend at the Teretonga circuit in Invercargill which also doubles as the third round of the national championship.
