PRESS RELEASE – Race One thrills at Sydney Motorsport Park
Sydney Motorsport Park is famed for its long sweeping corners and tight turns and it was always going to be great racing for the young guns of Formula 4.
Practice sessions threw up some fuel pick up issues around the high speed circuit that were quickly resolved. Light rain overnight meant most drivers started on wets for qualifying and made the change to slicks half way through. There were six seconds between P1 and P12, the largest gap so far for what has proved to be a very close race series.
The boys put on one of the most exciting spectacles so far this season in the first race of round three. AGI Sport drivers Will Brown and Nick Rowe had qualified fourth and fifth respectively.
Brown showed plenty of pace early on, “I ended up fourth in Qualifying so we are pretty happy with that, got an average start so ended up fourth off the start, had a great battle with Luis, we were battling for ages, swapping the lead.
‘We had a bit of a touch out of turn two, got a bit sideways but he sort of hit me back straight so that was good.
But luck didn’t quite stay Will’s way, “I was able to get past him then I made a mistake by myself on the kerb out of turn ten and spun it out so went back to eighth and tried working at putting some fast laps in”
Will now has some work ahead of him for the remainder of the weekend. “Starting off eighth we want to focus on building up to maybe top five and if we can get up further that would be great, we just want to bank some more points really. Starting eighth at least I will have Randle and Lloyd in front of me pushing their way through so hopefully I can get in behind them and push through with them.
Western Australian Nicholas Rowe put in some steady laps to improve on a frustrating start.
‘I think we went to back to about ninth off the start but we battled our way back through and we caught up to third and fourth but just ran out of laps at the end.
‘I was going to have a bit of a go on Jimmy there but I just ran out of laps and I didn’t want to do anything stupid so we finished up fifth.
Race 2 is a reverse grid of the top six drivers which puts Nick in a great position at the front of the grid. It’s also expected to be wet for most of the day.
“If it rains for the reverse grid on race 2 well then you beauty. I’m looking forward to it.
‘If it rains then that will be fun, if it’s dry well then I’ll put my head down and focus and hopefully get away at the start there and then keep the spot.’
Nick is no stranger to racing in the wet at SMP having placed well on a wet track last year and is feeling confident despite the forecast.
‘It’s the best fun I’ve ever had in my whole life going around this track in the wet. Last year was fun I won a few races here by near ten seconds so that was pretty awesome and these cars this morning qualifying in the wet was pretty cool.”
Jimmy Vernon in the Toolforce Racing green machine made some huge ground when he pushed hard off the start.
‘I made a lot of positions, we moved up into fifth and I just put my head down from there. I knew I really had to push and find some pace from somewhere in the track. Friday we really struggled with pace. I think we made the right changes in the set up and I think now we are really only a few tenths off the pace so I’m happy to come through and finish where we did in fourth.
It’s Jimmy’s home track and he has plenty of experience around SMP. Jimmy also proved he can handle the pressure of a reverse grid in the first round of the season where he lead for most of Race 2 before an incident ended his podium hopes.
“In race two we are starting out in third and I’m definitely hoping we can get a good start like I did in the race we had today from there I’ll just put my head down and push like we did in Townsville and get up into the lead. “
Victorian Tom Grech had some great pace in practice and produced one of the most exciting battles of the race when he pushed from tenth to sixth by turn one.
“We got a really good start in race one and then carried that momentum into the first few laps and then unfortunately there was a bit of tight racing and I got the raw end of it and just pushed wide and lost a couple of spots so that hurt us a bit and we just dropped back. The start was good but the result just didn’t back it up.
‘I was trying to race pretty hard and come away with a position. It certainly was exciting unfortunately not for me.”
Tom plans to keep his head down and push for points for the rest of the weekend.
“I don’t really mind too much about the weather tomorrow, if it rains it rains, if it doesn’t it doesn’t. Either way I’m not really too fussed.
‘Focus for the rest of the weekend is to try and get some consistent results, a bit of luck would be nice as well and hopefully we can get back up to the front.“
Jordan Love from Western Australia kept his head with some consistent laps to gain valuable race experience.
“Race one was really interesting, we had good pace mid race, didn’t have the best of starts so but we managed to get on the back of Hayek, Rowe and Grech but then we had a down change problem and that cost us a little bit and I ended up making a mistake and went off the track which cost a lot of positions so I think we ended up third last.
‘Obviously I’ve never been to any of these tracks before and I’m still making the transition from karts to open wheelers a career best at every race meeting would be good but I like the wet so tomorrow will be good.’
The forecast for Sunday is for widespread rain for much of the day. It will be a great chance for the young open wheel drivers to get some experience in the wet.
