Motorsport New Zealand Awards

25. May 2009 by admin.

Hi Sponsors, friends and supporters,

Last night I went to Wellington for the Motorsport New Zealand Awards Dinner.

I was one of three finalists for the under 21 year old driver for 2009. I didn’t win this and the prize went to Ritchie Stanaway who won the MTA NZ Formula Ford Championship.

Also announced last night was the Class of 2009 for the Elite Motorsport Academy and I was lucky enough to be part of it.

I am going to the Academy in July for a week at the Otago University where I will be competing with 8 other people.

The academy has been set up to teach young drivers all the skills needed to become professional drivers and at the end of the week we will be tested on what we have been taught.

You can check out the Academy on http://www.motorsport.org.nz/Scholarships/eliteacademy.htm

Regards

Damon.

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Results from Australia

17. May 2009 by admin.

Hi Sponsors, Friends and Supporters -

Last weekend I finally got to have my test in Australia. The test was delayed because the car I was to test in was damaged at the Melbourne GP meeting in March and parts had to come from France to repair it. By the time I got there the car was repaired and ready to go and the test went really well.

I had 6 x 20 minute sessions through the day and the car was really good. It was a 2008 Mygale with a Ford Duratech engine which is what they run in the Australian Formula Ford Series and is about 30 bhp more powerful than my car. I felt at home in the car right from the start and ended up being the fastest of 8 cars there for the test day and quick enough to be up the grid at the national round the weekend before.

Just before we left for Australia, I got a call to say that I had been selected as one of three finalist for the Steel Trophy which is awarded annually to a junior driver ( under 21 ) who competes at national level and displays dedication, skill and professionalism in their driving, aiming to progress to the upper echelons of the sport and shows a sportsmanlike attitude to all competitors and officials.

This was a real surprise as I didn’t even know I had been nominated.

I’m going to the Motorsport New Zealand Awards Dinner next Saturday night in Wellington so I’ll let you know how I get on.

Regards,

Damon

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Testing in Australia!

23. March 2009 by admin.

Hi Sponsors, friends and supporters,

This is just a quick update to let you all know what is happening.

After the second last round of the MTA NZ Formula Ford season I was approached by the CEO of the G-Force Mygale Formula Ford team from Melbourne and asked if I would like to go to Melbourne for a free test.

I am going over on April 16 and testing on the 17th at Winton Raceway.

I’ll be driving a new Mygale car with a Ford Duratech engine, so I am really looking forward to driving with the extra power. These engines are about 40 bhp up on my Zero Fees Stealth from the NZ series.

I’ll let you all know after the test how it goes.

Regards,

Damon

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MTA NZ Formula Ford Championship

19. January 2009 by admin.

Round 7: Pukoke, March 13-16

Hi All,

We prepared the car after the last round at Manfeild and left it in the North Island ready for Pukekohe which was just as well as Caltex borrowed it for a show in between the two meetings.

Once again we had a free test day on Thursday and we took advantage of this. We did about 4 sessions through the day to get the car right and by the end of the day I had a really good car that was consistently in the fastest 3.

Friday, official practise: We had two 20 minute sessions and we carried on where we left off on Thursday with very few changes on the car set up. The second session was wet, so we only went out long enough to make sure the car would be good if the weather changed in the middle of the race. Some of the other drivers tried too hard and one had a huge off at the top of Ford Mountain and really wrecked his car, so I was pleased to put mine away early.

Saturday, Qualifying: The session started well but a few minutes into it, a head wind came up on the back straight. I couldn’t find a tow from anybody so without the help of a slip stream I only qualified 6^th.

Race 1: I had  a pretty good race and worked my way up to second place where I ran for most of the race until on the last lap I got pushed wide at the hairpin and two team mates working together passed me. Ritchie Stanaway won the race, but at post race scrutineering he was disqualified for some illegal parts in his carburettor so I was promoted to third.

Sunday Race 2: I was on grid 5 for this race but I really bogged down at the start and on the first trip down the straight I was in 7^th place. I drove really hard and started working my way forward until I got up to 2^nd place. I lost one place on the last lap and came home in 3^rd again.

Race 3: The Championship had gone to Ritchie Stanaway in race 2 so this was always going to be a hard fast race. I started on grid 6 and on the first lap I got shuffled back to 8^th in the slip streaming battle. My car was set up to come on a little later, so I had to wait until I had a car I could do battle with. After about 4 laps it started coming right and I caught up with the leading group and we had a great race. Two of the other competitors took each other out which left 6 of us battling for the last 10 laps of the really high speed circuit. I slowly worked forward and once I got up to 3^rd, we moved away from the other 3 cars. We swapped places several times a lap and on the last lap I made a pass and got from 3^rd to 1^st. I couldn’t quite hold it and I went back to 2^nd on the long back straight. I had one last try and crossed the line 0.037 of a second behind first place. We were side by side as we crossed the line.

It was really good way to finish the season and we really enjoyed what turned out to be the best race of the year.  The spectators appreciated it as well if the noise they made was anything to go by.

Even better I won the weekend, my second round win of the season.

I’ve had a really good first year in class one Formula Ford and finished the season in 5^th overall which was my goal at the start of the year. This wouldn’t have been possible without the help of my Race Engineer, Phil Straver, who has been with me at all the meetings and given me encouragement and support as well as helping me with his knowledge of car setup and teaching me how to use my data logger. (Not to mention the awesome engine he built for me ).

When I damaged the car at race meetings, it was never a problem for Phil and Dad to put in the extra to have me back on the grid.

Thank you all for your help and support in what has been a busy year of traveling and racing and trying to keep up with my school work.

Regards,

Damon

Round 6: Manfeild, February 27-28, March 1

Hi Sponsors and Supporters,

We had a test day on Thursday before Friday’s official practise.The car was really good all day and we were in the top 4 in most of the sessions even though we were running on old tyres.

Friday 27^th Official practice; It was a really nice sunny day, the last one for the weekend, the car was really good with no problems and we felt good heading to Saturdays qualifying.

Saturday 28^th; We woke to a much different day with really heavy rain and a really wet track. Dad and Phil set the car up for the wet and when I went out I did a few slow laps to get the feel of the slippery track and then there was a red flag when one of the competitors hit the tyre wall and wrecked the front of his car. Once the track was cleared we were sent out again and once I thought the car was good I set the fastest time in the wet and then there was another red flag and another car in the wall. We thought the session was almost over and it was raining really heavily so we took the car back to the pits. The session was extended by 10 minutes and as the track dried we watched from the pits as I was shuffled back to 6^th place.

Race 1; With the way the car felt in qualifying we thought that come race time we should be able to make up some places quite easily. One of the officials came around and told us the meeting had been declared dry and that we had to run on our marked dry tyres. We fitted them and headed to the grid just before start time to be told they had changed to make the tyres optional. There wasn’t time for us to change back to the wets so we had to run on our dries. I started on grid 6 but the car felt really bad on its dry setup. I spun on the first lap and went to the back of the field. I managed to get back to 6^th at the end of the race so I guess it could have been worse.

Sunday 28^th race 2; I was on grid 7 for this race and I got a really good start and got up to 3^rd on the first lap, it was really hard for the first part of the race as I had other competitors trying to get back past me. Once the race settled down I opened up a gap to fourth place which I held till the end.

Race 3; I was on grid 5 for the start as I had improved my time in race 2. The race started well and I got up to 3^rd on lap one and then on the second lap one of the other competitors tried to pass me and pushed me off onto the outfield so I ended up about 250 metres behind the field. Once I got back on the track I set off after the field, really determined to catch them, and after about 5 laps I started repassing the back markers and kept working forward until I got into 5^th place and on the run to the sweeper on the second last lap I passed 2 cars at once and finally crossed the line in 3^rd again.

I finished the weekend in 3^rd place overall but didn’t move forward in the standings as the car in 5^th  went back to 7^th and the car in 7^th went to 8^th. I am only 5 points off 5^th place now and hopefully I might have a chance at 4^th if I’m lucky.

I’m really looking forward to next weekend and the last round at Pukekohe where I like the really high speed circuit.

Thank you all for your help and support.

Damon

Round 5: Teretonga - January 16, 17, 18

Hi All,

Last week was really busy repairing the damage to the body that I did in Timaru.

After repairing the fibre glass on Monday and Tuesday, we painted it on Wednesday morning. In the afternoon, Clive from Advantage Advertising replaced all the signage so when we went to the track on Thursday the car looked like new again.

I had 3 unofficial tests on Thursday and was really pleased with the way the car was going.

On Friday it was official test day and with a few little changes, the car felt really good in the first session.

In the second session we scrubbed in a set of tyres for the wet, as the weather wasn’t looking to good. We only did a few laps and put the car away and watched the rest of the session. The other competitors thought we had problems.

Saturday qualifying: The car felt great and about half way through the session I came in to have the rear anti-roll bar stiffened a little as I had a slight under steer. I went back out and set the 4th fastest time 0.141 secs off the pole time, so grid 4 was mine.

Saturday Race 1: I started race 1 on grid 4 and worked my way up into 2nd at about half way. The leader had quite a lead by this time, so I set off after him and caught up with him with a couple of laps to go. I tried passing a couple of times but didn’t make it, on the last lap I got a really good run onto the straight and pulled out of his slip stream just before the finish line but didn’t quite make it, he beat me by .007 of a second. This was my best finish ever and we were all over the moon.

Sunday Race 2: We made some slight changes to the car for race 2 on Sunday and once again I was on grid 4. I got a good start and slotted into 3rd straight away; I slipped streamed past the other 2 cars on the next 2 laps and I was finally leading a race on my home track. Coming into turn 7 on lap 4, I felt my car get a good shunt from behind, as it turned out the car behind lost his brakes and went over the top of my back wheel and off into retirement. I had a really hard race staying in front but at the end I had finally done it, I’d won my first National Formula Ford race. The team was really happy.

Sunday Race 3: I was back on my familiar grid 4 for what looked like being a wet race. I stayed in 4th for the first couple of laps until the race settled down, then started moving forward and got to the front at about lap 6 with 9 to go. I opened up quite a lead but knew the rain had stopped and the track was drying; one of the other cars caught up because his car was more suited to the dry track and we had a real battle, he slipped past me going into turn 1 when I ran a little wide. I tried several times to get back through to the lead but I just couldn’t make it, so I finished in second place again.

This was enough to comfortably give me the round win, which was another first for me.

It was really exciting getting up onto the top spot on the podium for the first time.

I have now moved up to 6th place in the Championship from 8th and look forward to improving my position in the last 2 rounds.

Thank you all for your continuing support!

Regards,
Damon

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MTA New Zealand Formula Ford Championship

15. January 2009 by admin.

Round 4  - Timaru, January 9, 10 and 11

We had a tough weekend in Timaru but salvaged some valuable points in the end.

Friday practise started pretty well and we were on the pace really early and happy with the car.

In the second session it all changed when I missed a turn in point at the end of the main straight, went off into a tyre wall and tore the suspension off the right hand side of the car.

Dad and Phil worked really hard to get the car ready for Saturday morning’s qualifying session.

They must have got the car pretty good as I qualified in 7^th and the first 7 cars were under the lap record.

I started the first race in 7^th place and got a really good start but at the end of the straight on the first lap I got up to 5^th when another competitor put a front wheel under my right rear and took off my radiator and a lot of body work. I got back to the
pits but couldn’t continue so recorded a DNF.

Race 2 on Sunday morning I was back on grid 7 and after a really tough race came home in 5^th place.

Race 3 was almost a repeat of race 2 and I finished 5^th again after another race long battle.

It’s on to Teretonga my home track now and I am really looking forward to racing at home in front of many of my supporters and sponsors.

Thank you for your continuing support!

Damon

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MTA New Zealand Formula Ford Championship - Race Report

7. December 2008 by admin.

Round 3 - Ruapuna, Christchurch - November 29 - 30, 2008

This report is a little late because I had to finish my school exams last week!

Everything went well in testing for this round and I was in the top few on lap times. It all started to go wrong when we started qualifying.

Saturday morning qualifying: The car had been really good and I thought qualifying would be the same. How wrong I was. The weather turned really hot and right from the start my car was running hot. I couldn’t push too hard without it overheating. I qualified 11^th, but felt he car would be good once the overheating was cured.

Saturday afternoon Race 1: I got a really good start and in the first couple of laps I managed to get up to 6^th place. All was well until another competitor drove into the side of me at the end of the main straight and pushed me off. This bent one corner on the car and I also over revved the engine and bent 3 valves.

It was a late night on Saturday for dad and Phil while they replaced the corner and also had to fix the cylinder head. On Sunday morning we filled the car with water and started it up only to find it running on 3 cylinders and blowing water out the exhaust. We then had to do an engine change and set the car up with only an hour before race 2.

Sunday morning race 2: After our hurried engine change and set up, we got to the grid with a few minutes to spare. I started pretty well and worked my way forward to 8^th in a car that wasn’t quite right in the handling  department.

Sunday race 3: I moved forward to grid 10 for this race as I had improved on my qualifying time a little. I had a really uneventful race and came home where I started in 10^th.

It wasn’t the best race weekend ever but I suppose that is how it goes

On December 7, we had a round of the South Island Formula Ford series at Teretonga. I raced the Zero Fees Stealth at it as a test day and found some of our problems. While we were going over the car in the morning, we found that the accident at Ruapuna must have cracked my rear anti-rollbar -  it broke completely in testing.

We didn’t have the correct bar to replace it and the replacement was too stiff. This made the car slide around in the rear a lot and it was a bit of a handful to drive.

My lap times were still pretty good and I won the first two races. In the third, I was battling for the lead on the first turn and one of the other cars turned in to early and clipped my front wheel and turned me around so I went back to the rear of the field. While I was coming back through the field, I was going around the outside of one of the other cars; he didn’t see me and forced me off into the grass. I guess I wasn’t meant to win all 3 races.

It was a good test for the car after our problems the previous weekend and I’m now looking forward to the next round in Timaru on January 10 - 11.

Thanks to my sponsors and supporters for all for your help - without it, none of this would be possible.

Regards,

Damon

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MTA New Zealand Formula Ford Championship - Race Report

9. October 2008 by admin.

Round 2 - Pukekohe, November 7 - 9

For this meeting there was an extra day of practise available, so we went up to Auckland on Wednesday night.

We got to the track early and were ready for the first session at 10.30.

I really liked getting back onto Pukekohe with its fast straights and high-speed corners. I found the track really slippery because of all the dust and dirt on the surface. My car felt really good with no sign of the miss that plagued us at Taupo.

After a few sessions I started to feel at home on the circuit again and it was really fun going fast. I had an off into a sand trap in the afternoon and dad had to go and buy a vacuum cleaner to clean the car out.

Friday - Official testing: In the first session on Friday the track felt much cleaner and there was more grip and I recorded the second fastest time in the session.

In the afternoon session I missed a gear coming onto the back straight and didn’t know that I had bent 4 valves in the engine. I drove the wheels off the car trying for a good time but I just couldn’t make it, in the end I went off again and had to get towed back to the pits as the engine wouldn’t restart. When I got back Dad and Phil checked the engine and found the bent valves. After we cleaned the sand out of the car again it was time to take the engine apart for repairs. We got some valves off one of the other teams and then Phil and I went down to Possum Bourne Motorsports workshop to machine them to fit the head. Dad stayed at the track and finished cleaning up the car. We got the car running at 9:00 pm and locked up and headed for our motel.

Saturday – Qualifying: We had a 20 minute qualifying session and as soon as I went out I knew that my car was really good. I put in several 1:02 second laps and from my pit signals I could tell I was doing ok. When the session was over, I had qualified in 3^rd place, which was really good.

Saturday - Race 1: I started on grid 3 and on the first lap I slip streamed up to 2^nd place on the long back straight. A couple of laps in and one of the other competitors did a late braking move on me at the hairpin and I got forced back to 6^th place. For the rest of the race I was playing catch up and I slowly worked my way back to 3^rd place at the finish. On the slow down lap my car started jumping out of 3^rd gear on the overrun so we had to take the gear box apart and replace one of the dog rings that select the gears.

 

Sunday - Race 2: I was on grid 4 for this race as someone else had put in a quicker lap time than me in race 1. I started well and our front group of 4 cars had a real slip streaming battle, swapping places until one of my competitors went off at the hairpin and there were only 3 of us in the front group. On the 4^th last lap the other 2 touched wheels and one of them went off at the really high-speed turn 1. I slip streamed down the long back straight and took the lead for the first time in a National Formula Ford race. I couldn’t believe my luck when I came over Ford Mountain and the safety car came out. We followed the safety car for 2 laps and it pulled off with one race lap left. As we went onto the back straight I got into a bit of a slide (I had been driving with one hand as the car was still jumping out of gear) and 3 of the cars got a better run onto the straight and passed me so I ended up 4^th.

Sunday - Race 3: In the middle of race 2 some of the mid field cars got a really good slip stream tow and put in one quick lap so we ended up with 2 new cars on row 1 and I was back on grid 6. In this race we couldn’t pass on turn 1 as earlier in the day there had been a huge crash in the V8 Touring car race and the safety fence had been damaged. Temporary repairs were made but permanent yellow flags were placed on turn 1 to make it safer. I started pretty well and once again we had a real slip streaming battle but with more cars in it. My car was really fast up Ford Mountain but I couldn’t complete the passes down to turn 1 because of the yellow flags, so it made my race really difficult. On the last time down the long back straight I was in 7^th place but I slip streamed into 6^th and then got a good run from the hairpin to pass another car and cross the line in 5^th. After the race at tech, the car in front of me was disqualified for being under ride height and then after the race there was an enquiry and the car that won was given a 50 second penalty for bad driving behaviour, so I ended up in 3^rd place again. This gave me an overall 3^rd place finish for the weekend.

This has been my best weekends racing ever and I got to ride around the track on the back of the Dunlop ute to wave to the fans and had my first trip onto the podium to spray Champagne.

I’ve now moved from 10^th in the series to 5^th and there are not many points separating the top 5 places.

Thank you all once again for your help and support, as without it none of this would be possible!

Regards,

Damon

 

Round 1 - Taupo October 3, 4, 5, 2008

Friday: We arrived at the track early to get the car ready, as we had been late getting to Taupo on Thursday night after our plane broke down in Invercargill and again in Christchurch!

Practice 1; We went out in the first practise after setting the car up on the scales on our flat pad. The car felt pretty good, but was just a little soft in the rear causing a small amount of oversteer. We were about 2.5 seconds off the fastest time, but thought we could find some more speed with a few changes.

Practice 2; Before the second test session, we fitted some harder springs to the rear to stiffen up the suspension,  This made a huge improvement, with us being only .5 sec off the fastest time.

Things were looking better now.

Saturday; First up was qualifying and I ended up 8^th, which wasn’t too bad as most of my competitors had been testing at Taupo and had a bit of an advantage because of it.

After Qualifying we had an issue with our carburettor and had to change it.

Race 1; I started on grid 8 and I made my first mistake of the year when the car rolled forward on the grid. I had to touch the brake pedal to stop it. As I stopped, the lights changed and I got off to a slow start so I had to get into catch-up mode. I made up a few places and finished the race in 9^th. I also had a miss which was caused by my new carburettor, which was a real problem.

Sunday, Race 2; We did some work on the carburettor to try and find the miss. It was raining really heavily for this race. I was on grid 10, as a couple of the other drivers had posted faster times in race 1 than I had. I got a really good start and I got up to 5^th place by the 3^rd corner. One of the other drivers didn’t see me coming in the rain and moved over in front of me and touched my front wheel which bent one of my steering arms. It was really hard trying to drive the car as the steering wheel was now at about 45 degrees when I was going straight. It took a few laps to get the hang of the bent steering and I ended up at the back of the field. Once I mastered the strange steering and handling, I started moving through the field again and finished the race in 11^th place. On the way I set the 4^th fastest time, with the bent steering

Race3; I started this race on grid 10 as well. As soon as the race started, I realised that the miss was still there on the high speed left turns so my motor would cut out in the middle of the corners. I drove as hard as I could and managed to come home in 9^th place.

I was disappointed with my weekend results, as when we were testing at home before the car left, my times were really competitive.  But as they say, that’s racing!

Thanks to the great team at Toll Tranzlink the car is on its way home to Invercargill.  We’ll get out to Teretonga and sort out the missing engine and get back on the pace before we send it off to the 2^nd round at Pukekohe in 4 weeks time.

To all my sponsors and supporters - thank you very much for all your help in making my season possible.

Thanks!

Damon

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