TSR’S STANAWAY GRABS DOUBLE WIN AS TEAM FINDS ITS FEET AT PUKEKOHE

New Formula Ford team TSR Racing bagged its first wins of the 2008-2009 MTA Formula Ford season over the weekend with young Tauranga star Richie Stanaway’s two wins the icing on the cake of a great weekend at Pukekohe.

Richie Stanaway

Stanaway was second in the first race on Saturday – and could have won had he and Mitchell Evans not got crossed up and allowed Stefan Webling through to win. But Stanaway put it all behind him in Sunday with two impressive drives to win both races and take the round, and the Ron Frost memorial trophy.

Team mate Martin Short made huge progress as well. An engine issue restricted him to fifth in race one, after an overnight engine change he bounced back with a superb third place in race two and then a solid fourth in the third race – though this was later stripped as the car was found to be marginally under the allowable ride height. A win for the Hamilton star is getting closer with each race.

Martin Short

Stanaway’s points from the third race are subject to the hearings of an official review following a protest by Evan’s team, but the youngster was pleased with his weekend’s work nonetheless.

“The team worked hard during testing to unlock the potential out of the Mygale chassis prior to the weekend’s proceedings. After qualifying in fourth place we quickly charged towards the front in all three races.

“The round provided some of the most exciting races in my career to date, the drafting battles meant that we would often be three wide heading for the hairpin at the end of Pukekohe's long back straight.

“My goal was to win the round and we did just that, an added bonus was winning the final feature race for the Ron Frost memorial trophy contested over 15 laps. I have a lot of confidence in my team and my car heading into round three which will be held at Ruapuna in three weeks time...”

Short too, was pleased that he and the Mygale are finally finding the sweet spot, and philosophical that the ‘settling’ of the car following a set up change after the second race left it marginally too low for Race 3.

“We are still learning about the car, but it was a good weekend. Race 2 was my best to date and we were fast throughout when the car was running well. We set the car up for Race 3 a little lower and ran strongly again, but it settled further during the race and this left us a couple of millimetres under the minimum requirement, otherwise we would have finished third for the round and taken third in the points race.”

Ends

2008/09 MTA New Zealand Formula Ford Championship

Rnd 1 Oct 04-05 2008                Taupo Motorsport Park Taupo                                                                                               

Rnd 2 Nov 08-09 2008                Pukekohe Park Raceway Pukekohe

Rnd 3 Nov 29-30 2008                Powerbuilt Tools Raceway Christchurch

Rnd 4 Jan 24-25 2009                Timaru International Motor Raceway Timaru

Rnd 5 Jan 31-Feb 01 2009          Teretonga Park Invercargill

Rnd 6 Feb 28-Mar 01 2009          Manfeild Feilding

Rnd 7 Mar 21-22 2009                Hampton Downs, north Waikato.