A dash for cash Formula Ford series is set to headline this year’s annual Manawatu Car Club’s Feilding Auto Electrical Winter Racing Championship.
Any driver who is a member of Formula Ford Racing New Zealand is eligible to compete in the four-round series with $100 up for grabs to each round’s pole sitter and a grand prize of $1000 for the series victor courtesy of Evolution Motorsport.
A shakedown event is slated to go ahead this weekend from the Feilding circuit before the opening round kicks off on July 4-5, with further rounds in August and September.
The cash prize is a significant boost up from the Winter series usual reward for its winner – a chocolate fish and it is something MCC secretary Jeff Braid and FFRNZ secretary Karyn Crawley believes will attract plenty of new competitors.
“We’re really thrilled Rick and Fiona have made this generous offer and we think it will further raise the status and competitor involvement in a category that consistently provides close and thrilling racing,” they said.
“It’s always been a great opportunity to shake down your vehicle in a fully competitive environment and it is really good value.”
Local racer Callum Crawley narrowly missed out on the recently curtailed 2019/20 NZ Formula Ford title, compelled to watch season-rival Billy Frazer claim the spoils as the final round from Hampton Downs was cancelled indefinitely.
However, Crawley says the Manawatu Winter Series provided an excellent platform for him to launch his NZ FF title assault and admits it is the perfect training ground to keep race fit over the off-season.
“It’s perfect,” said Crawley. “Keeping to the one track, getting a really good amount of testing then three races is fantastic.”
“For me it gave opportunity to form a really good relationship with my race engineer. There was time to work together on set-ups and trying different things which was hugely beneficial.”
This weekend’s opening shakedown round will go ahead behind closed doors and have a maximum attendee cap of 100.
Image: Tayler Burke