The Manawatu Car Clubs’ Mitre 10 Winter Series at Circuit Chris Amon Manfield over the weekend of 24-25 February 2024 proved to be one of GVI.Kiwi Formula Open New Zealand’s best events this season. The weather was great and the nature of this flowing circuit in Feilding produced three absolute cracking races.
Race One saw GVI FONZ rookie Toby Mc Cormack in the Tatuus FT40 get the jump from the outside of the front row to lead Zac Christensen in the Tatuus FT50 and Gary Rush in the Swift DB4 Atlantic into turn one.
Then came a fast-starting Ethan Sillay in the Reynard Formula Atlantic driving around the outside of Leo Francis and the rest of the pack. What ensued from there on in were some frenetic battles throughout the field. However, the one that held everybody’s attention was the one at the front with young Mc Cormack using the straight-line speed advantage of the FT40 over the FT50 of Christensen who would close right up through the fast-sweeping Higgins and Dunlop corners only to watch the FT40 drive away from him on the straights.
This went on for six of the ten laps until Toby made a small mistake at the hairpin and Christensen did not need a second invitation and was through into the lead that he was never to lose despite a huge amount of pressure from Mc Cormack.
The battle of over the remaining places was just as intense with Gary Rush taking out third overall with Leo Francis and Ethan Sillay following him home after some great dices. Further down the field there was an awesome three-way battle between Grant Rivers (Swift DB4 pictured above), Geoff Harriman (Tatuus FT50) and Bryan Hartley (father of Brendon, Swift DB4), Paul Couper (Tatuus FT40) and Fraser Windleburn (Swift DB4) engaged in a great scrap for the minor money.
Race Two and Zac Christensen had learned from Race 1 not to let Toby use the speed advantage of the FT40 and slowed the pack up on the formation lap and got the jump at the start. However, the safety car was out before the end of the lap as Bryan Hartley was left stranded on the side of the track on the Denny Hulme Straight with a broken input shaft. There ensued another slow formation lap and once again Zac got the jump on Toby.
However, this time all the excitement was over the fight for third to fifth as Gary Rush in the Swift came under intense pressure from the two Reynards of Ethan Sillay and Rhys Humphries. The Formula Atlantics certainly proved why they were such a great car in the 70’s 80’s and 90’s as the swapped positions lap after lap until young Sillay got a drive through for a Safety Car infringement. Leo Francis had a lonely race not being able to stay with the Atlantics. Geoff Harriman and Grant Rivers had a great fight with the only other finishers in the race being Paul Cooper and a recovering Ethan Sillay.
Race Three was the feature race at 15-laps and once again at the start Christensen got the jump on Toby but this time he did manage to gap the young Auckland driver as he had bolted on new tyres at the beginning of the meeting. Toby was running on tyres from the HGP meeting a month earlier, so it was more or less over for the front of the field. However, what happened behind was something of an eye opener.
Grant Rivers and his son Adrian race a lot together in many different disciplines. Adrian had never driven the ex-POPE Team Swift DB4 until Friday afternoon when Grant threw him the keys and said, “Take it for a skid” and he did around 8-laps in it lapping in the same times as Grant. Before the start of Race Three, Grant pulled out and entered Adrian in the car for the 15-lap finale.
Starting at the back of the grid, as he hadn’t qualified the car, he then proceeded to scythe his way through the field until he reached the battle between Rush and Sillay who was battling with an ill-handling Reynard. From there he and Rush disputed third and fourth positions and swapping places like their lives depended on it. Finally, Adrian got the upper hand to bring it home fourth. We would love to see Adrian share this car with his dad at future meetings.
So that was a wrap for round five of the GVI.Kiwi Formula Open New Zealand and if anything this meeting proved just what a successful Formula this is as the Historic 80’s and 90’s Formula Atlantics and the newer ex-Toyota Racing Series Cars from two generations proved how equal they are and what great racing can be achieved.
This is certainly the place for younger drivers wanting to step up to top tier wings and slicks cars to learn their craft. Likewise it is a fantastic place for the drivers who love the historic cars to exercise this magnificent machinery.
The next meeting is Hampton Downs HRC Legends of Speed meeting celebrating Graeme Lawrence and the Lawrence Family 22-24 March. Buy tickets online for HRC Events.
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