Consistency pays and Ryan Yardley made the most of it at the fourth round of the Ace Hire South Island Formula Ford Championship which took place in hot conditions in Christchurch over the weekend. Yardley finished with two podiums and a fifth to win the round from fellow Cantabrians Caleb Cross and Michael Collins.
“We’ve had a few problems to contend with but overall the weekend has gone well,” commented Yardley. “Heat has been an issue and in the final race I had no dash board information so was effectively driving by ‘feel’.”
Collins, driving an older Class 2 car, has taken over the lead in the series despite having to retire in the second of three races held at the Mike Pero Motorsport Park, Ruapuna. He won the first race on Saturday and finished second to top qualifier Auckland’s Taylor Cockerton in the final 12 lap race.
“We had a good dice with Taylor (Cockerton) in the final race but he had more pace,” commented Collins. “We certainly had the speed for the round, but we’re disappointed with the race two retirement.”
Retirement seem to be the common theme throughout the weekend. Wanganui’s Aaron Marr started off well finishing second in race one but had an engine failure in the second race. Replacing the engine for the finale, timing issues meant Marr was only able to circulate in order to gain valuable championship points.
Quickest driver of the weekend Taylor Cockerton won pole position in qualifying but couldn’t get off the line in race one after his clutch failed. Bad luck continued while leading in race two when a flat battery saw the Aucklander retire. However a win in the final race was a pleasing finish.
“It’s great to finish the round on a high,” commented Cockerton. “The car was great with no issues. A safety car didn’t help but it was a matter of nailing the restart and staying ahead of Michael (Collins).”
The safety car came onto the track half way through the third race after Grant Campbell and Steve Heffernan tangled at turn one.
Caleb Cross showed great consistency finishing with two podiums and a fourth place and moves up to fifth overall on the points table.
“It’s been a really good weekend with solid points gained,” commented Cross. “We did our best and it has been a great learning curve for me and we look forward to the next round at Teretonga.”
Christchurch Polytech student Michael Scott won the second race. However with Scott not competing in the South Island Series, this handed maximum points for the race to Yardley.
Yardley now takes over the lead in Class 1 from Marcus Armstrong who was absent from the round choosing to focus on his Toyota Finance TR86 campaign. Cross is third with Cockerton fourth.
In Class 2, Collins leads from Derek Wilson and Stephan Heffernan while in Class 3, Doug Price took maximum points for the round and leads Roger McKenzie and Dave McKenzie.
The round also doubled as the second round of the New Zealand Formula Ford. Michael Scott won the round from Ryan Yardley and Caleb Cross. Scott leads the championship on 372 points from Cross (360) and Yardley (345).
Drivers and teams now head to Invercargill for the next round of both championships.
The South Island Formula Ford Club acknowledge the support of Ace Hire (Chch), Avon Tyres, Arai Helmets, Motorsport Solutions (NZ) and Newfield Autos (Invercargill).
