The Legends of Speed meeting celebrating David Oxton turned out to be a challenging affair for the Formula Open New Zealand series.
The weekend started off on the Friday looking great, with a big field of Formula Atlantics and ex TRS cars. The field was boosted by six Formula Atlantics from Australia and one from the South Island. However, testing on Friday put paid to three cars, out with engine issues, leaving 17 cars to face the starter on Saturday morning.
Saturday’s proceedings began with qualifying in the morning, but a busy track, with FONZ and the NZ Sports Cars grouped together, meant no one from either group got a clear lap.
Ken Smith was back to his best in the opening race, proving he has lost none of his speed and experience as he went around the outside of Fergus Crabb and Ollie Sentch to slot into second, behind Ethan Sillay.
Sillay proceeded to put a gap on the field, with Smith retaining second for the first three laps until he was forced out with a gear selection issue.
That left Sentch and Crabb to battle it out for second, a fierce fight going the way of the former, both drivers getting out of their cars beaming after their respective second and third placings.
The Australian visitors were all battling with each other as they came to grips with the layout of Hampton Downs.
Amazingly, as had happened at Taupo a couple of weeks earlier, the fire alarm went off during the race, forcing it to be stopped while Race Control, the pit buildings and the hospitality suites were evacuated.
Sadly, for reasons known only to themselves, the race was not restarted.
This left Sillay the winner in the David Oxton Cup for Formula Atlantics, James Corban winning the Jim Palmer Cup for the TRS FT40 cars and Fergus Crabb the winner in the Graeme Lawrence Cup for FT50s.
A contast of conditions on Sunday made for an interesting affair, a drenched circuit and persistent rain adding to the challenge.
Paul Couper sat out with gearbox issues, and Leo Francis’s engine went into limp mode, reducing the numbers by two. Smith and Sillay did not have wet tyres and also sat out Sunday’s opener.
That left 13 cars to start the race, which was instantly thrown into chaos as Peter Lucas aquaplaned on the front straight and hit the wall just as Gary Rush, who had not been there on the Saturday and had to start from the rear of the grid, arrived on the scene through the spray and collected the Pye Ralt RT4. Both cars were out for the day on the spot.
Needless to say the race progressed with everybody gingerly tip toeing around a soaked race track.
Sentch won the David Oxton Cup race and the same winners as in the opener took the other two cups.
The rain let up before Race 3, seeing Sillay return to the somewhat depleted field.
As he had in Saturday’s race, Sillay ran away from the field, leading easily until the last lap when, as he was coming up the hill towards the finish line, his engine exploded, sending a conrod out through the block.
Thankfully for him, he had enough speed and distance to coast across the line in first place, with a very fast closing Fergus Crabb taking second on the road. Sentch was third across the line in his Swift DB4 Formula Atlantic.
Sentch has been the find of the series when considering he had never even sat in one of these cars until the week prior to the Historic GP at Taupo where ended up fourth in the fifteen lap feature just pipping Greg Murphy on the line.
Both Sentch and Sillay are two young chargers who have no interest in racing modern cars, both agreeing these cars are faster than anything else around over a lap and give the biggest buzz you could ever want.
The weekend finished with three first time race winners and three new group winners with Sentch and Sillay winning the Formula Atlantic Group, Corban winning all three races in the FT40 Group and Crabb winning all three races in the FT50 Group.
As for the Australians, they had great time even though two of their cars did not make it for the weekend. But have assured us they are coming back next season and there is even talk of a trans-Tasman series.
Words: Supplied
Header Image: Neville Bailey
