FONZ IN THE NEWS 

The Return of Kenny Smith!

 

The Ice Breaker Meeting over the weekend of 21st & 22nd of September saw the opening round of the Formula Open New Zealand. This year with the support of Mountshop Under Car Body Specialists This opening round was sponsored by GVI.Kiwi and saw the return of Kenny Smith to the grid. Kenny has contested a couple of rounds of FONZ in the past in the ex-Marcus Armstrong Auckland Toyota Sponsored FT50 TRS car. However this time out saw him in his pride and joy the 1990 NZIGP winning Swift DB4 Formula Atlantic car. Kenny bought this car in December 1989 to contest the Peter Jackson International series. He campaigned this car right up until the end of the Atlantics in 1993. Apart from the odd outing in the late 90’s it was dismantled and has sat in Ken’s shed for many years. After a three year restoration and a couple of false starts it finally hit the track for the first time in over 25 years. What a return it was, Ken (now 83) was competing in his sixty sixth continuous year of racing which surely has to be some sort of record. To emphasize that he has lost nothing in the way of speed he was quick out of the box 4th fastest overall in qualifying. 

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The line-up was not large for the first round and it rarely is, but it was a quality field with Kaleb Ngatoa putting the 1989 & 1991 NZIGP winning Swift DB4 on pole with a blistering 1:02.298 to put him a second clear of Toby Mc Cormack the reigning series champion now in the ex-Marcus Armstrong Tatuus FT50 who was a whisker in front of Ethan Sillay in the very quick Reynard RF92H.  Ken smith was next in front of Gary rush in the Hydraulink sponsored Swift DB4 only two tenths of a second slower than Smith. Next up it was the two new boys in the Jim Palmer Cup group, Reagan Edwards and James Corban who were both within half a second of Rush and Smith. They were followed by Bryan Hartley (Swift DB4) Paul Couper Tatuus FT40 and James Harriman in has dads FT50.

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Race one and Ken Smith showed he had lost none of his speed or cunning and drove around the outside of Toby Mc Cormack and Ethan Sillay and nearly got Ngatoa in the process but decided discretion was the better part of valour and slot in behind the young pro driver from Marton. The first race was a twelve lapper and Ken harassed Ngatoa for a couple of laps but the Canadian Airlines sponsored Swift with is extremely powerful Toyota 4AGE slowly started to pull away from Ken Smith whose Ford BDA in the back of his car not quite strong enough at this early stage of the season. After around six laps Toby Mc Cormack pulled of a brilliant inside pass on Smith into turn one to take second. 

Meanwhile back in the pack Gary Rush was fending off a determined James Corban and Reagan Edwards who were scrapping furiously in their FT40’s. Bryan Hartley was behind this bunch dealing with a brand new high powered Toyota 4AGE that was constantly overpowering the four meeting old Avon slicks. Unfortuneatley it all came to a sticky end when Bryan lost control coming out of the Tradezone Sweeper and collected the inside concrete wall.

Then on lap nine the flag marshal at the start finish line held out the last lap board as he had been given a sheet by race timing that said the FONZ race was only ten laps not twelve. Ngatoa saw this and decided he was going to see if he could do a minute flat (theoretically possible in an Atlantic)   so as he came up the hill on the tenth lap he uncharacteristically kept his head down to minimise the drag and crossed the line thinking he had won and cruised back to the pits two laps too early. This left Toby Mc Cormack to take the win with Ken Smith second and Gary Rush third.

 

So the winners were:

Mountshop Jim Palmer Cup FT40’s: James Corban Tatuus 2004 FT40 TRS

Mountshop Graeme Lawrence Cup: Toby Mc Cormack 2015 Tatuus FT50 TRS 

Mountshop David Oxton Cup: Ken Smith 1989 Swift DB4 

 

Race Two on Sunday Looked like it was going to be a cracker as the grid is set on the fastest time of the weekend to date. Kaleb Ngatoa was on pole with a time of 1:02.298 with the hard charging Mc Cormack alongside 1:02.887 and then Ken Smith third fastest with young Reagan Edwards alongside putting in a time just under a second off Smith. Gary Rush was next with Bryan Hartley just in behind him. It should be noted that Bryan made the race courtesy of the other Formula Atlantic drivers donating parts to get him going James Watson who is taking a sabbatical this season drove an hour down from Henderson to supply an upright and rear gear shift cover and various other bits. Gary Rush donated his spare wing and Kenny dived into his supply of parts to help out.  But Alas it all came to nothing when a CV broke probably as a result of the previous days crash putting Bryan out on lap one. 

 

At race start Ken Smith made another blinder to get past young Mc Cormack to once again get in behind Kaleb Ngatoa, however from down in sixth position on the Grid Ethan Sillay came through the field like a knife through butter first dispatching Gary Rush and Reagan Edwards in quick succession before he homed in on Toby Mc Cormack who was trying to get past Smith and dealt with them in one fell swoop. He then set about chasing down Kaleb Ngatoa and caught and passed him at half race distance.  Sillay was left to cruise home to his first ever win in Formula Open New Zealand. 

 

So the winners were:

Mountshop Jim Palmer Cup FT40’s: Reagan Edwards Tatuus 2004 FT40 TRS 

Mountshop Graeme Lawrence Cup: Toby Mc Cormack 2015 Tatuus FT50 TRS 

Mountshop David Oxton Cup: Ethan Sillay 1992 Reynard 92H

 

Race Three was the fifteen lap final and it looked like turning into a real scrap between two groups. At the front Ethan Sillay was on form with a pole time of 1:01.654 with Kaleb Ngatoa alongside him six tenths of a second slower. On the second row it was young Toby Mc Cormack edging out Kenny Smith by seven tenths of a second who were both within a second of the Pole man. 

 

The second group back had Gary Rush in fourth on 1:04.382 with Reagan Edwards alongside him, followed by James Corban in sixth and Bryan Hartley on the outside of that row. This group covered by just on a second. Then rounding out the field was Paul Couper and James Harriman who were separated by less than a one hundredth of a second. At lights out Ngatoa beat Sillay into turn one and Toby Mc Cormack battled it out with Ken Smith over third place, further back Gary Rush was fending of a determined Reagan Edwards with James Corban and Brian Hartley were glued together with Hartley in front.  

 

The race continued like this for ten laps and on lap eleven it all went badly wrong for James Corban and Bryan Hartley. James Corban got a better run off of turn ten and was making a bid for the spot when the blue lights were shown for a fast closing Ngatoa about to lap them. What happened next made for some spectacular if not expensive photography when Hartley and Corban came together with the smaller FT40’s rear wheel coming into contact with the big wide slick on the back of the Atlantic launching Bryan Hartley into the air in what could have been a roll over. Luckily Bryan came back down to earth albeit with a very hard landing that broke to Swifts front suspension. Needless to say this brought out the safety car which ended the race. 

 

However the drama was not over yet as Kaleb Ngatoa pulled out of the lead and into the pits with a broken diff and he was followed in by Kenny Smith with low oil pressure. This left Ethan Sillay to take the win on track with Toby Mc Cormack in second and Reagan Edwards a well-deserved third on track after a race long battle with Garry Rush.

 

Race three winners were.

Mountshop Jim Palmer Cup FT40’s: Reagan Edwards Tatuus 2004 FT40 TRS 

Mountshop Graeme Lawrence Cup: Toby Mc Cormack 2015 Tatuus FT50 TRS

Mountshop David Oxton Cup: Ethan Sillay 1992 Reynard 92H

 

GVI.Kiwi Round winners were:

 

1st Overall: No: 8 Toby Mc Cormack, Tatuus FT50, Graeme Lawrence Cup Group

2nd Overall: No: 49 Reagan Edwards, Tatuus FT40, Jim Palmer Cup Group

3rd Overall: No: 3 James Harriman, Tatuus FT50, Graeme Lawrence Cup Group

Next round will be Manfield Circuit Chris Amon for the Octoberfast Truck Race meeting 19th & 20th October.