2007 - 2008 Reports
Round 7 of MTA Formula Ford, Teretonga
March 7 - 9, 2008
Hello everyone!
This is my last national race report for the season, as this weekend was the last round of the 2007-08 national race season.
Friday: The weather was hot and we had two 20 minute practice sessions.
Session 1: The car was handling well considering we had old tires on for practice. My best time was a 1.03.99, which wasn’t far off my best Teretonga lap time.
Session 2: As we were going onto the track it started to rain heavily. We made a couple of quick changes to the car. Although we were a lot slower than the first session, I was still fourth fastest.
Saturday:
Qualifying: I had new tyres fitted and we changed the setup and gear ratios, trying to get some extra speed.
I did five laps then came back in because the car had a really bad understeer and I didn’t want to wreck my new front tyres. We made some changes and I went back out, but the car still wasn’t right. I still managed to qualify 12th overall and first for a class 2 car.
Race 1: We made some setup changes to the car before the race to try and get some of our speed back.
I started on grid 12 but because I had a high first gear, I was slow off the start and got passed by Mathew Penrose - my class 2 opposition.
I had to fight back and just as I pulled out of his slipstream, he missed a gear and I narrowly avoided hitting him as I passed him to finished 12th.
Sunday:
Race 2: Dad made some more changes to the car and went back to our old gear ratios, as I liked them better. He also had to repair the throttle linkages, as I had bent the throttle stop when I almost hit Mathew.
When we pulled onto the dummy grid, the weather turned to custard with rain and hail falling accompanied by strong wind. Dad made some quick changes to the car before I went out to my grid 13 starting place. I also got some advice from Kenny Smith about starting in the wet and this really helped.
On the first lap I got up to seventh place and I then made up another two places to finish fifth on the back of the leading bunch.
Race 3: I started this on grid 13 again and although it was really windy, I posted my best lap time of the weekend on my way to tenth place as my car was handling really well again.
With my ninth place overall at the last round, it pulled me up to tenth place in the national championship, so my dream of a top 10 finish in my old class 2 car turned into reality.
I finished second in class 2 even though I won 7 of the 9 races and got one second. What hurt my title was a DNF in Christchurch when I tangled with one of the class 1 cars which missed a gear coming out of the hairpin and I hit the back of him.
Thank you all for helping and supporting me in my first full season of Formula Ford racing. It has been really hard work fitting the racing in around school but I’ve learnt a lot and had a lot of fun along the way and made lots of new friends.
I have one more South Island Formula Ford round in Timaru in 3 weeks. After that, we are going to sell the car to help finance a new class 1 car so I can have a full-on attempt at the Formula Ford championship next season.
Damon
Round 6 Levels Raceway, Timaru
February 29, March 1 and 2
We went to this round a day early as we had a test day available on Thursday. We spent Thursday testing and getting used to the track as I had only been there once before for a classic meeting in dad’s 1987 Van Diemen Formula Ford.
We spent the day trying different gear ratios and set up changes, ready for official testing on Friday.
Friday: We had 2 test sessions on Friday and by the end of the day I was quite happy that the car was ready for qualifying on Saturday morning.
Saturday: We had qualifying on Saturday morning and the car felt good; I qualified on position 14.
Saturday race 1: After starting on grid 14, two cars tangled on the first lap at the hairpin. I had to stop as the track was blocked and about four cars passed me before I was able to get past the accident. I passed a number of cars and ended up 12th for that race.
Sunday:
Race 2: I started again on grid 14, as my times weren’t any faster in the first race than qualifying. I passed a couple of cars early on in the race and near the end, two of the front runners tangled and I moved forward two more places to finish 10th.
Sunday race 3: This time I moved up to grid 13 for the start. I went back to 14 at the start and I had a race long battle with the two cars in front of me. I passed my class 2 rival Mathew Penrose around the outside of the corner off the front straight, to be the leading class 2 car again at the end and in 12th place.
Thank you all for your continued support in my first year of Formula Ford racing!
Regards,
Damon
Round 5 MTA NZ Formula Ford Championship
Manfeild Autocourse, 15th, 16th and 17th February
This was always going to be a hard round as it was the first time I had been away on my own without dad to help on the car. I had 2 of dad’s friends, Kevin Murdoch and Les Burdett, to keep me on course.
Friday: We had 2 practise sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The morning session was dry and the engine was going well but the handling wasn’t the best so I ended up near the back of the field.
In the afternoon session I went out and after 5 laps came in to have some changes made to the suspension. This didn’t seem to change the car, so Les and Kevin went over the suspension and made some adjustments ready for qualifying on Saturday.
Saturday Qualifying: It started raining just as we went out the gate. The rain was so heavy the session was red flagged, as there was no visibility. When the session resumed the track was still very wet and slippery. I qualified 7th, which is my best position yet.
In race one on Saturday afternoon I was really trying for a good start and I got to much wheel spin off the line and when I backed off the car bogged down and I went back a number of places.
I battled on through the race and ended up 12th, which was a pretty good result.
Sunday: In race two on Sunday morning I started 15th place but on lap two I spun so I finished 16th.
Race three: I started on grid 18 and made up one position but the engine still had a bad miss and because of this it was affecting my straight line speed making it very hard to pass. Since I have been home and talked to dad; we think the problem is the master switch.
Thank you for your continued support and interest in me!
Regards, Damon
Round 4 Taupo A1GP, January 18, 19, 20
On the Monday after Manfeild we headed for Taupo to get ready for the A1GP meeting.
Dad and I had to take the engine and gearbox out to fix an oil leak that appeared at Manfeild.
This took us until Wednesday morning to fix and then it was time to load up and head for the track and then setup for the weekend.
Thursday: I had a 20 minute practice in the morning and then we had to qualify in the afternoon, this was really hard because the A1GP organisers only allowed us to walk around the circuit at the end of Wednesday and I hadn’t seen the track before.
Part way through the qualifying session, I struck braking problems so I didn’t post a very good time, which meant I would be starting from grid 17 for Friday’s race.
Friday Race one: I started from 17 and got a great start and picked up a few places I then passed a couple more to finish 12th.
Saturday Race two: I started from 17 and passed 3 cars off the start. I passed one more car and another car crashed. I finished 12th again.
Sunday race three: I started from grid 17 and passed 5 cars on the first lap and when I came down the main straight for the first time the braking problem that we thought we had fixed after qualifying reappeared, I locked my right front wheel and slid wide at the end of the straight and the people that I had just passed all passed me back. I carried on with a really bad shake in the steering every time I put the brakes on which made the car really hard to drive. I finished 14th after a race long battle with a class 1 car and I was lucky a few of my opposition dropped out.
After the meeting, dad found the right hand front brake disk was distorting when it got hot, before we put the car back in the trailer we replaced the disks so the car is ready for the 5th round when I go back to Manfeild in 4 weeks.
Because of the brake problems at Taupo, I finished 12th for the weekend and dropped back to12th in the national points.
Thanks again for your help and support!
Regards,
Damon
Round 3 MTA Formula Ford Championship
Manfeild Auto Course, January 11, 12, 13
Hi sponsors and supporters -
We flew to Palmerston North on Wednesday night and picked up our Ford Falcon from Courtesy Ford.
Thursday: Because Thursday testing was cancelled at the last minute, this was just a day to put the tent up and to prepare the car.
Friday: In the morning I had one 20 minute practice session to learn the track and test the car.
Before the afternoon session we changed the gear ratios and made some small changes to the car, which made me a lot faster.
Saturday: It was qualifying in the morning. I had one 20 minute session to set my fastest lap time which set grid positions for the races. I qualified on grid 14 of the 20 car field.
Race one: Saturday afternoon, I started on grid 14 and made up a couple of places when the lights went out. Part way through the race there was a tangle at the front and 2 cars went out, on the restart one of the other competitors jumped the start and was given a time penalty.
I passed a few more cars and at the end of the race I crossed the line in 8th place, my best finish so far of the season.
Sunday: Race 2 in the morning and I was moved back to grid 16 as someone else had done a faster lap time than me.
I got another good start and gained a few places, during the race I passed a few more cars and ended up finishing in 12th place.
Race 3 in the afternoon and I was put back to grid 17. After another good start I managed to get up to finish 12th again.
It was my best round result to date and I ended up in 9th place overall.
With this result I moved from 14th up to 11th overall in the National points tally.
Thanks again for your help and support!
Regards,
Damon
Teretonga Race Report, South Island Formula Ford, Round 3, December 8, 9
Hi sponsors and supporters!
On Wednesday night we went out to Teretonga to do some testing. I had only done a couple of laps before the weather packed in - there was a light spit of rain all night. I did about ten laps before coming in and Dad and I decided we would come out on Thursday night instead.
On Thursday night the car developed a bad understeer around the loop so we did a lot of small adjustments to the car to fix this problem. By the end of the night I had put in some reasonable times.
Saturday started early and was a long day, as there was only one practice and one qualifying session. In the practice I completed only one lap before the gearshift broke coming onto the straight. This was a reasonably simple fix, but it was annoying missing out on the practice session. Qualifying went well but it was very hard to put in a good lap time because there were a few slow cars that would get in your way every time I put in a fast lap.
Sunday (Race day)
Race 1:
It was another really hot day on Sunday. I started on grid position 5 for race 1, but a couple of laps into the race another competitor put his brakes on early coming into the hairpin, this causing me to run into his back wheel and then going over the top of him - luckily my car didn’t suffer any damage from the incident.
Race 2:
I started off grid 3 for this race because I did a faster time in race one. I finished 4th in this race as there was cement dust all over the track because in the race before some cars had dropped oil on the track. It was very hard to pass because as soon as you got off the racing line, the track was very slippery. As I couldn’t get past on the slippery track, I dropped back from the 3rd car to try and catch him to set a faster lap time.
Race 3:
I started off grid 2 because I set the 2nd fastest lap time of the weekend. I was on the front row of the grid beside John Whelan’s Stealth class 1 car and in front of all the other class 1 cars.
I got a flyer of a start and led for the 1st lap until John Whelan slip streamed and past me at the start of lap 2 (I was the only person to lead a race lap other than John Whelan all weekend). I was passed by another Stealth a couple of laps later and I finished 3rd in the race and 1st in class 2. I finished first in class 2 for the weekend. There were 16 cars in the field for the weekend and I was really pleased with my result.
My best official lap time of the weekend was 1m 3.7sec.
To cap off an already great weekend John Whelan offered me a test drive in his Stealth on Monday morning.
Monday:
I went to school for the first period on Monday morning and then Dad took me out to Teretonga for my test. After John went out for a few laps to make sure the car was okay, then it was my turn. Phil, John’s engineer, fitted me in the car by packing me up with a pillow and moving the clutch pedal closer to me as I’m a lot shorter than John. Now it was time for my drive. Phil got me to do 5 laps and then come back in. As soon as I went around the first few corners it felt much easier to drive than my older class 2 car. This can be put down to the difference in technology. In the 3rd lap of my first session, I did a lap of 1m 3.8sec, which I was really pleased with.
My next session was 10 laps. While I was on the track, I was always conscious of the fact that this car won the last national round and is sitting 2nd in the national championship. John wanted it back in one piece for the next round!
Because of this I was being cautious and not exploring the limits, as I would in my own car, so I was really pleased when I recorded a lap time of 1m 3.5sec.
Thanks for your continued support - it is really appreciated.
My next meetings are at Manfeild on January 11, 12, 13 and Taupo on January 18, 19, 20. I would be really pleased to meet any of my supporters if you can make these meets.
Regards and Merry Christmas to you all!
Damon
Race report from Ruapuna
Second Round MTA Formula Ford, November 23,24, 25
Hi Sponsors and Supporters,
For this meeting we went up on Thursday night after school as I had exams and I didn’t want to miss them.
After finding a leaking shock absorber at Pukekohe we had them rebuilt and thought the car would be good.
Friday:
First practice Friday morning I found the car was almost undriveable and I had a little off. We had worked around the worn shock absorbers to make the car handle right and with them rebuilt it was obvious we would have to change the setup.
(click each photo for full image)
Dad lowered the car the car to try and get some more grip.
For the afternoon session the car was much better but still not quite right so at the end of the day we made some more changes and fitted the new tyres ready for qualifying on Saturday morning.
Saturday:
We went out for qualifying and the car felt really good but after a few laps the back end started sliding around again.
My fastest lap was on lap two which gave me grid fourteen out of 22 and fastest class 2 time. We made some more small changes before the race in the afternoon to try and get some more rear grip.
The race was uneventful and I only moved up one place to finish 13th and first in class 2.
Sunday:
For race two, we made some more small changes and at the start of the race the car was really fast. From grid 15 I gained about six places in the first 2 laps.Coming out of the hairpin I was behind another competitor when he missed a gear and I hit the back of his car, this broke the nose cone which wasn’t bad, but it also bent a steering arm which caused me to spin off a few laps later. I couldn’t get the car restarted so I didn’t finish that race.
When I got towed back to the pits, it was obvious that we had a lot of work to do before race 3 as when I spun over the ripple strip, I damaged the bell housing and starter mount. We had to pull the gear box out to repair the bell housing and with the help of a couple of competitors and four of our karting friends from Christchurch, we just managed to make the grid for the last race 3 hours later.
Race 3
This race went pretty well considering the quick repairs to the car. I started on grid 16th and got up to 14th and was once again 1st in class 2.
Despite crashing in race 2, I still finished 2nd over all in class 2.
Pukekohe
Damon Leitch
Race Report from Pukekohe
First round report MTA New Zealand Formula Ford championship November 2, 3, 4
When I arrived in Auckland the weather was fine and warm. I got there in time to have one 20 minute practice to check out the track and car. Friday: I got two more official test sessions. We changed the top gear ratio in the gearbox before our first run because on Thursday I had been pulling to many revs at the end of the straight and I was having to lift off the throttle to early. By the end of Friday I was feeling much more comfortable with the really high speed track.
Saturday morning qualifying: We had a 20 minute qualifying session to set grid positions for the races. I qualified on 17th of the 20 car field.
Race one: I got a slow start but once under way my car felt really good. I made up a number of places throughout the race I was really pleased when I finished in 9th position.
Race two Sunday morning: We changed second gear ratio so my car would accelerate faster from the hairpin, and we changed some suspension settings to get better handling. I started the race on grid 16 because my lap time was faster than qualifying. There was some light rain at the start of the race and this caused a big crash that took out four cars. The race was red flagged and we had a single file restart. As the track dried my car felt really good on its new settings and I worked my way up to tenth place but on the last lap I ran out of fuel and coasted across the line in 13th place. This was caused by a brand new fuel line having a small hole in it and fuel running out. Race three: In race two my best lap times were almost as good as the leaders so I started this race on grid 14. The weather was really wet and the track was very slippery. I got up to 11th place but on the second last lap I hit a patch of water and oil and slid wide at the hairpin and went back to 13th place which is where I finished.
I finished 10th overall for the weekend and first pre-93 car.
I was very pleased with my first trip to Pukekohe and I’m looking forward to the second round in Christchurch in 3 weeks time. Thanks to all my sponsors for supporting my challenge for the Formula Ford title. Without their help, this wouldn’t be possible!
Damon Leitch