Australian Formula Holden / Ford.....

[gomick]

formula holden which is struggling for numbers like indy lights, was once again dominated by young gun rick kelly (round 5 was held at calder park on weekend).....3 rrounds remain and Kelly has all but the title won

1 R.Kelly 185
2 C.Murchison 101
3 S.McColl 74
4 P.Hill 63
5 S.Wills 60

in formula ford this is a great championship battle between two "wills"......with 4 rounds remaining

1 W.Davison 147
2 W.Power 143
3 J.Whincup 80
4 S.Kostera 69
5 A.Jones 60

this championship could be decided by the driver who gets the important 1 point for pole position

[marcus]

Rick kelly is a shoe in for Formula Holden without a doubt..he will walk it in ...Murcho has been dissapointing this year struggling with the Chris Hockings team..which has been a shame ...but we need more cars and top drivers to bring this series back to the glory days of old.

formula ford is unreal this year...the drivers this year are the cream of the crop from karts over the last 4 or 5 years ..Jamie Whincup is very impressive..but I guess the series is a 2 horse race and i think Davidson will get up for the win...allthough will power will have something to say about that im sure.

[DNQ]

The Australian Formula Ford series this year is great. The two 'Wills' are producing some great racing. The same can not be said of Formula Holden. Let's hope they can get some more drivers, because at the moment, the fields of 8-12 cars just aren't cutting the mustard as far as good races go...

[Rimrider]

Great to see an excellent FF series there in Oz with class drivers everyone.

Sad to see a ******** like Howard Marsden is going to wreck your junior racing scene with his proposed 'Noddy Car' type Championship soon.

[Marshal]

So are any of these guys (Davison, Power or Kelly) going to make it to europe to race, or are they going to get sucked into V8's. And who is most likely to make it big?

[mac]

Christian Murtchison tested for International F3000 last offseason, but didn't have the funds or a great speed advantage.

I would say Rick Kelly will end up in V8s as that is where his older brother Todd is. Plus he has the support of HRT.

I'd love to see Will Power and Will Davidson get a run overseas. Particularly Davidson, as he seems to be a really aggressive driver. However, Davidson has links to Valvoline, which could see him end up in V8s too. However, it is only early.

Jamie Whincup is also a possibility. He's doing a great job this year on a fairly modest budget.

[ricdanger]

Do these classes get any tv time at all in Aus?

[mac]

Welcome Ric.

They do. Most weekends when the V8s aren't running, Channel 10 run a program called Trackside. In this they show the V8 support events, which include FHolden and FFord, GTP, and Nations Cup (GTP for expensive cars), as well as the Konica V8 series (a feeder series to the V8s).

Although the program has been a little hap-hazard recently.

[elephino]

The next show will be on the 22nd, but it will be the Konica series from Lakeside mainly.

[Crash Test]

Will Power is a local guy that I've been following fora long time now. He has what it takes, there is absolutely no doubting that, but I don't think he personally has the money to go all the way. But as soon as you win the Oz FF title, you have it made...instant V8 drive with a works team for Bathurst...

I know last year Power was on the verge of an enduro drive, conditional on his finishing position in the championship....of course his massive up and over and over and over at PI put an end to that

[marcus]

Im hoping jamie Whincup can make it overseas..the guy is very good ..he was awesome in karts and has been very good this year in formula ford..i would have thought that he would go overseas in karts first though..but it is just one name to look out for..we have plenty of guys that could cut it in europe but money is the big thing and if a V8 team wants to pay a guy to drive that instead of them struggling to find money to go overseas then you cant blame them for staying here and running v8's..but plenty of them have the talent...lets hope the world gets flooded with this talent in the next few years instead of the trickle we have going right now.

[Rob Hogenmiller]

Formula Ford in Australia seems to be gaining popularity. Does any know of drivers who have/are progressed/ing out of FF from Australia. Forgive my ignorance, but with a kazillion open wheel racing series it's hard to keep tabs on them all. I'm thinking of running Canadian FF next year but certainly wouldn't rule out Australia.

[Crash Test]

For starters you have Mark Webber, who is on the verge of F1, Jason Bright, and many many others. Check out www.formulaford.com.au

[elephino]

Now if only they can decide on a decent set of rules for the future of the category.

[gomick]

that was well said crashtest regarding if you win fford title you have it made with a bathurst drive (that & qld 500).....where is greg ritter, adam macrow, luke youlden - no budgets for overseas, but they cant get a full-time v8 drive - you need a budget even if you are a national champ to race even here .....

[redback]

Formula Holden is in real trouble this year and even though the racing is great in FFord the numbers are also starting to thin (20 at the last round). I remember back in '97 at the first round there was something like 45 entries. Mr Racetime may have the official stats on this.

Cochrane and Ch 10 have in my opinion killed both series by not providing same day coverage on TV (sponsors aren't interested in Trackside) and an unreasonable racing calender that sees Perth as the third round, gaps of two months and a final round in December !. Mr Marsden has killed FFord with the one make thing (due in 2003). So we have one more year of FFord 1600 then ????. The strange thing is that the State Championships have really taken off with big grids and lots of newcombers of all ages.

[Rob Hogenmiller]

Originally posted by Crash Test
For starters you have Mark Webber, who is on the verge of F1, Jason Bright, and many many others. Check out www.formulaford.com.au

http://www.formula-3000.net/q&a_webber.php-------------Recent interview with Mark Webber.

I think the interesting response is where he says if you want to go to F1 get to Europe as soon as possible and be prepared to start from the bottom again if your coming from Australia(I assume that you could put any country in replacement for Australia, outside the Euro countries)

That is unfortunate that in Australia they will be going to one make chassis. (If I understand that correctly.) You would think that Club FF racing would become much more popular with the National series seeing some decrease in attendance if that were to happen.


(Edit-corrected interview link)

[formula-3000net]

Originally posted by Rob Hogenmiller


http://www.formula-3000.net/q&a_webber.php-------------Recent interview with Mark Webber.

I think the interesting response is where he says if you want to go to F1 get to Europe as soon as possible and be prepared to start from the bottom again if your coming from Australia(I assume that you could put any country in replacement for Australia, outside the Euro countries)

I wouldn't say anywhere outside Europe. The USA, Canada and even Brazil are producing drivers who can get to F1 with only a small amount of european experience. (one or two years in F3 or F3000 for example, or even less.).
Webber came to Britain and had to start again from Formula Ford level.

[redback]

Yes, Rob, we are going to a "one make" chassis. I put this info in another post a while ago but I'll bring it up again as it seems relevant.

In a recent edition of Auto Action in Australia the boss of Ford Racing Australia, Howard Marsden, outlined his plans for a one make FF category for Oz. Ford Motor Company will design, build and run the cars, all in-house at Ford. It is going to be cheaper, safer and more even than our current 1600 Kent series. It will not be using a Zetec engine but rather a new generation Ford engine. Thats about all that has been released so far.


quote: from AA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marsden is also concerned with the FFord situation in the UK where observers claim engineering input is now more important than driver talent. "In the UK it's chassis skill and that's not what we are after," explained Marsden. "We are not after designing young engineers, we are after designing young drivers."
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I thought that the UK FFord racing scene was close and has produced quite a few exceptional drivers over the years. Obviously I have it all wrong.

As of 2003 you will no longer be able to buy and run your own FFord unless it is at State level. I think more Aussie drivers should take the Courtney approach of by-passing Australia and going straight to the UK. I have seen quite a few drivers sink loads of money into trying to win the Oz title and then they don't have anything left to go overseas with.

[Ray Bell]

Frankly, I don't mind this change, if it takes place as detailed above.

For far too long a retrograde formula has held pride of place in Australian open wheeler racing, and second placing to the Touring Cars. It's about time that a more open formula got the billing and the sponsors and the TV time, showing up faster than the tintops and earning some of the respect that open wheelers used to have.

Now, before I get castigated for saying 'retrograde formula,' let's look at what FF was designed to do:

Introduce newcomers to the sport on a budget, with reasonable speed from conventional cars.

Where is that idea today?

[Crash Test]

Reading the tech article in MRA about the future of FF is a bit worrying though...Howard may in fact make FF's a closed wheel class in the name of safety, so that nobody will be able to interlock wheels...

[redback]

I may be a bit negative about the change but I am all for our young drivers to be able to compete at an international level. As formula-3000net pointed out Webber had to re-learn FFord in zetec trim at an international level. I fear we are going down the path of FPA where it had all good intentions but wasn't really rated. There has been rumors of Ford using the Martin Hines Formula Car see www.zipkart.com/y2k.htm. They have a pic of a car with enclosed wheels also as it is available as an option.

[Rimrider]

Redback, I don't think you will find Hines will figure in anyones plans. He had his permit application to run a series in the UK refused by the MSA a few ago because he lacks manufacturer backing......

Your right about Webber re-learning when he did FF Zetec in the UK. Your also right about Courtney skipping the OZ schene and going to the UK straight away. Doing FF in Oz is a waste of time if you want to go to Europe to hunt the F1 dream. Oz is far away on the planet to anyone else as it is. If Marsden gets his way you may as well put your junior motor racing schene on Mars! Your drivers won't get a look in because UK junior racing people won't take them seriously if there driving Marsdens 'Noddy' cars. They want men not whimps!!!

[DMC]

What Australian motorsport needs is for its junior formulae, notably Formula Ford and Formula Holden to conform more to international standards and allow them to fall into the "road to Formula one" heirarchy of the Eurpoean series.

Formula Ford in its current form its recognized internationally and Australia having its own "onemake" series will only distance itself from the rest of the world's Formula Ford series.

As for Formula Holden, there is nothing comparable in Eurpoe at all. Technically it fits somewhere in between Formula 3000 and Formula 3 but not Formula 3000 team in their right mind would sign up a driver based on Formula Holden performances. A mix and match series of seven year old Formula 3000 chassis and Holden V6 engines is not a good idea for our premier single seater class. While the dream of Formula Holden being the continuation of the old Tasman Series and Formula Pacific is a great idea, it only further isolates Australia from the rest of the motorsport world.

The Australian Formula 2 championship now allows Formula 3 cars to race in it and, along with its new alliance with Procar, is growing with popularity. As more and more Formula 3 cars join the series and with the organizers making serious attempts at aligning the series to an international series, it could really take off.

[elephino]

DMC, not quite. F3 now has its own championship this year. It is being promoted by PROCAR and being run alongside the PROCAR events.