This weekend sees the return of the GVI.Kiwi Formula Open New Zealand Series as a support category for the annual Taupo Historic GP in conjunction with the Super Sprint MotorSport New Zealand Championship premiere series, at the Taupo International Motorsport Park.
The Jim Palmer Cup category for the ex-Toyota Racing Series FT40 cars has been boosted with the addition of Dylan Grant and Brody Mc Conkey joining the grid. This will make this Jim Palmer Cup competition, within the overall race, very spicy as Toby Mc Cormack has had things all his own way this season and is relishing the challenge of having Grant and Mc Conkey to race with.
The Graeme Lawrence Category for ex TRS FT50 has six cars competing with Hayden Bakkerus and Zac Christensen left to battle it out for championship honours in this group, as Kaden Probst and Alex Crosbie will be joining former FONZ racers Liam Sceats and Kaleb Ngatoa in Castrol Toyota Formula Regional Oceania Championship for the weekend. There are four other FT50’s racing in this category for this round and the battle between these guys will be well worth watching.
The David Oxton Cup for Formula Atlantic’s boasts a field of seven of these high powered 1990’s screaming single seaters. James Watson returns for the first time this season with a rebuilt engine after a significant failure in the final round last season, robbing him of winning the overall FONZ series. This will be a one-off appearance for this year so with more power from the injected Toyota 4AGE fans can look forward to Watson setting a new category and series record, that he lost to Liam Sceats by .04 of a second last season.
Veteran Kenny Smith is debuting his fully restored (in original livery) 1990 New Zealand Grand Prix winning Formula Atlantic Swift DB4. A full shake down at Hampton Downs a fortnight ago showed the car to be in the sweet spot with an exhaust tone different to other Atlantics racing as Smith runs the ubiquitous Ford BDA engine. Don’t expect Ken to be driving around looking after the car as Taupo is essentially a Formula Atlantic friendly track and Ken is dialed in and ready to take on all comers.
Another former Formula Atlantic racer returning to the track this weekend is Bryan Hartley, father of Brendon Hartley. Hartley has recently purchased the Swift DB4 that has been campaigned by both Kaleb Ngatoa and Greg Murphy this season. He will use this meeting to reacquaint himself with a Formula Atlantic.
GVI.Kiwi FONZ has set out provide young Formula Ford and Formula First drivers a platform to step up to the Castrol Toyota FR Championship and take on the internationals on a level footing.
FONZ races are on SKY TV (subject to time changes);
Start Finish Saturday 20 January 2024
11:59:00 12:21:00 FONZ – Race 1 Rolling Start 10 Laps
14:49:00 15:11:00 FONZ – Race 2 Rolling Start 10 Laps
Start Finish Sunday 21 January 2024
13:41:00 14:06:00 FONZ – Race 3 Rolling Start 12 Laps
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