Thirteen-year-old Edendale driver, Nixon Cripps, excelled on debut in the South Island Formula Ford Championship at Levels Raceway in Timaru over the weekend.
Cripps qualified fourth fastest, just .608 of a second off the fastest time on Saturday against several more experienced competitors, before racing to a third place finish in the opening race on Saturday afternoon, finishing behind the experienced Dylan Petch of Christchurch and Seb Eskandri, who finished runner-up in last year’s New Zealand Championship.
Cripps then went on to take three second places behind Petch in the trio of races held on Sunday.
The results see him leave the opening round second in the championship. The next round is at Euromarque Motorsport Park at Ruapuna in Christchurch over the weekend of 27-29 November while Round 3 is at the youngster’s home circuit, Teretonga Park in Invercargill over the weekend of 5/6 December.
Former New Zealand Formula Ford Champion, Jordan Michels, who is assisting Cripps with his transition to racing cars says, “it was an absolutely stellar debut from the young man. It blew our expectations away really and now it’s working out how we can win the overall championship so that’s a very nice position to be in.”
Cripps is a former New Zealand kart champion and has twice represented New Zealand in Italy.
Cripps acknowledges the help of his parents, grandparents and Jordan Michels as well as his team of sponsors – Leithfield Nursery, Haakman NZ Bulbs, Circa Marine & Industrial, OneForest/IFS Growth, Sign Solutions and Evolution Motorsport.
