The penultimate round of the New Zealand Formula Open series occurred at Thunder at the Downs meeting at Hampton Downs on March 15th and 16th.
The round saw a somewhat depleted field of cars following the Historic GP in January and the very wet Legends meeting in February.
With six cars out due to engine failures or accident damage, we saw eight cars line up for race one. Of particular interest was the debut of Paul McCormack, driving the Tatuus FT40 his son Toby drove last season.
Of course, this season, Toby is campaigning the Stuart Lush-owned ex-Marcus Armstrong Tatuus FT50. Sadly, Toby had no competition in the Graeme Lawrence Cup for FT50s, as all the others in this group were out with mechanical issues.
However, he made hay under the sunny skies by claiming all three races to take out the Graeme Lawrence Cup round for FT50s and the overall highest score for the weekend in the Howden Ganley Cup.
The Jim Palmer Cup FT40 series was looking really good. Four cars turned out, with Paul McCormack joining season regulars Paul Couper, James Corban, and Reagan Edwards.
The Formula Atlantic brigade was missing Kaleb Ngatoa and Ethan Sillay, so it was up to Kenny Smith, Ollie Sentch, and Fraser Windleburn to fly the flag for the series’ senior cars in the David Oxton Cup.
The beauty of FONZ is that while the three different types of cars race for their own individual series points because they all race together, it creates very close racing. All cars are similar in lap times but deliver performance in varying ways.
Therefore, even though the numbers were low, the racing was outstanding, with battles throughout the field. Series newcomer Ollie Sentch had the ex-Grant Rivers Swift DB4 Formula Atlantic absolutely singing, and he had great battles with James Corban and Reagan Edwards in their FT40s in all three races.
Likewise, another FT40/Atlantic battle raged between Paul Couper, Paul McCormack in FT40’s and Fraser Windleburn in his Atlantic. In race two on Sunday morning, Paul Couper got a blinder of a start from last on the grid to get past both Paul McCormack and Fraser Windleburn. Sadly, on lap two, at the end of the straight between the Porsche Dipper and Trade Zone Sweeper, the diff locked up and spun Paul 180 degrees, hitting the very end of the Armco barrier and tearing the left front suspension off the car. Luckily, Paul was unhurt.
Of the remaining two, Kenny Smith had a quiet time in his 1990 NZIGP-winning NZIGP-winning Swift DB4 after stunning the youngsters with his demon starts. He came from third on the grid to lead into turn one, only to be repassed by Toby McCormack before turn two.
As Toby pulled away from Kenny on each occasion, so did Kenny on the rest of the field. So at the start of race three, the fifteen-lapper, with Kenny Smith and Paul Couper no starters, one might have thought that with only six cars, it was going to be a snore fest. Well, they could not have been more wrong! Right from Lights Out, Paul McCormack (FT40) and Fraser Windleburn (Atlantic) engaged in a titanic battle that saw Paul McCormack lead Fraser home by a mere second.
Meanwhile, further up the track, the two single-seater newcomers, Ollie Sentch and James Corban, also engaged in some fierce dicing, which eventually saw Ollie get past and set off after Reagan Edwards, who was having a lonely race in second place on the road. Things certainly livened up when Ollie arrived on the scene and proceeded to hassle Reagan with several attempts to get past. Reagan already had two second-on-the-road placings from races one and two and was determined to make three.
His defence against Ollie in the faster Formula Atlantic was outstanding, and Ollie said after the race that Reagan’s experience in Formula Fords paid off in keeping him out.
So, we ended our second to last round, with the final round on April 26th and 27th at Taupo International MotorSport Park. At this stage, if all repairs go well, we will have all classes back up to maximum numbers.
Header Image: Formula Open NZ
