Chris Symon has gone three from three at Pukekohe Park Raceway in the third round of the 2020/21 Hi-Q Components Formula First Championship, claiming both of today’s scratch races.
It adds to his thrilling 0.008s win over Liam Foster in yesterday’s opener.
The Palmerston North racer’s first win today was largely overshadowed by a collision between Mason Potter and Liam Nicholson along the main straight, which had the race curtailed prematurely.
Until then, a seven-way duel for the front was beginning to intensify, with pole-sitter Symon holding the edge over Brody McConkey, Foster and Amy Smith.
Rookie pairing Zachary Blincoe and Leo Scott have both quickly adapted to the high-speed nature of the Pukekohe circuit and were holding their own in the tussle for the lead before the race was suspended with three tours remaining.
Potter and Nicholson had come to blows at top of the hill, with both grinding along the concrete barrier in a less than gentle fashion.
Potter’s left-front wheel had also come astray in the process of the crash, and it found a new home along the start/finish straight.
The race was consequently red-flagged, with both Potter and Nicholson seemingly uninjured from the incident.
The running order at the time of the stoppage was Symon from McConkey, Foster, Smith and Blincoe getting the edge on Scott.
The day’s final race, fortunately, went the full eight-lap distance, with championship-leader Symon once again clinching victory at the death.
This time his victim was McConkey and the difference separating the two was a mere 0.057s.
Both had stints fronting the pack, and at times their battle allowed for the rest of the field to bunch up. The result was plenty of hair-raising four-wide moments on the dash into turn one.
Smith continues to inch nearer to a maiden race win, settling for third-best at the line and just seven-tenths down on Symon.
A fast start by Louis Sharp had the series newbie climb through the pack to claim a career equalling best fourth.
Blincoe was hot on the heels of the Track Tec Racing youngster for most of the final lap. Yet he struggled to find a clear path through and quickly came under fire from Hayden Bakkerus behind.
Neither would trade position and Blincoe led home his rival to claim the final top-five result.
The Formula First paddock now takes a four-week break over Christmas before kicking back off with round four at Taupo over January 9-10.
Main Image: Tayler Burke
