GVI.Kiwi Formula Open New Zealand (FONZ) had their season ending prize giving in late June in Taupo. Sixteen-year-old Toby Mc Cormack took out the Howden Ganley Cup for the overall series win as well as the Jim Palmer Cup for winning the FT40 series and to top it off he also took out Rookie of the year.
This is the third year in a row that an FT40 has won the series outright. At a very attractive sale price of well under $60K these cars are the perfect step up from Formula Ford into a “Wings & Slicks” race car.
Other winners included:
Gary Rush the David Oxton Cup for Formula Atlantics, Geoff Harriman the Graeme Lawrence Cup for FT50’s.
Gary Rush also won the Chris Watson Cup for Master class (over 45) and the mgm Trophy for top engineer went to Stuart Lush.
Hard Luck award went to Fraser Windleburn for being a real sport in continuing to enter despite a misbehaving Ford BDA in the back of the Truman Sports replica Swift DB4.
Twenty-seven drivers competed in the GVI.Kiwi Formula Open Series throughout the season with five ex TRS FT40’s competing for the Jim Palmer Cup and nine ex TRS FT50’s competing for the Graeme Lawrence Cup.
However, the big surprise was the resurgence of interest in the historic Formula Atlantics competing for the David Oxton Cup with nine of them fronting over the season. So impressed by the series, circuit owner Tony Quin has invited the Formula Atlantics from FONZ to race for the Historic GP next January and they will be joined by a number of cars coming from the South Island, Australia and the USA.
Although not part of the FONZ series it will be great to see a field twenty-five or more of these screaming 250hp 1600cc wings and slicks cars going head-to-head.
FONZ is also pleased to announce that next season our current series sponsor Genuine Vehicle Imports (GVI.Kiwi) will be joined by another big name in the New Zealand Automotive Industry and we welcome Mountshop/Koni who will be sponsoring the three different series, The Jim Palmer Cup, Graeme Lawrence Cup and David Oxton Cup. Managing Director Hemi Toia sees Formula Open New Zealand as an ideal development series to find New Zealand’s next Liam Lawson or Marcus Armstrong.
Another significant development is that Toyota Gazoo Racing have recognised the value that Formula Open New Zealand brings in helping to develop young Kiwi drivers abilities in learning the skills needed to be successful wings and slicks cars racing cars. By competing in the earlier versions of the Tatuus TRS cars (FT40 & FT50) prepares these young drivers for a step up the CTFROC cars. As an incentive for young drivers to race in FONZ, Toyota Gazzoo are going to reward to the top drivers under the age of 25 from both the FT40 Series and the FT50 series with a full test and evaluation day including data logging in the current FT60 CTFROC cars this will include engineering support and driver instruction from Toyota’s nominated instructors.
Formula Open New Zealand will be entering its sixth season in September 2024 and each year the series gets stronger with more car and driver combinations joining all the time. Part of the success is the unique format that FONZ runs with each different group scoring equal points for placing in their individual groups with the highest points scorer claiming the outright win for the season. With all three types of car having different strengths and weaknesses at different circuits the racing is always close and exciting.
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