Glen
Wood tests Spectrum at Rockingham
INTERNATIONAL
DRIVERS FLOCKING TO FORMULA FORD
8 February,
2008: Australian Formula Ford Championship front-runners Glen
Wood and Tim Blanchard are set to renew their on-track
rivalry in the UK this season. The Aussie youngsters are among a
host of international and British drivers to have signed in the
last week to contest the British Formula Ford Championship.
Team-mates Down
Under last season, Blanchard and Wood have joined rival squads for
their assaults on the Ford-backed British championship. Australian
Champion Blanchard has opted to sign with triple UK champion team
Jamun Racing while Wood will drive for Kevin Mills Racing,
appropriately enough at the wheel of an Australian-built Spectrum.
Wood enjoyed his
first taste of UK winter testing this week at Snetterton and
Rockingham, and team boss Kevin Mills was pleased with progress:
"Everything is coming together really well. We already knew
that the Spectrum was a quick car - as quick straight from the box
as the chassis we used to run - but Glen was among the quickest on
track at Rockingham and that bodes well because there's still a
long way to go and a lot of things to try."
Mills hopes to run
three Spectrums this season; 2006 Scholarship Champion David
Brown tested the car yesterday (Thursday) at Rockingham.
Nineteen-year-old
Wood, from Seville, Victoria, was enthused by his first experience
of winter track work: "The circuits I've seen here are
certainly a lot different to those I'm used to, and the weather
was something else as well, but the tests went well and I think
we're in with a good chance this year. It will be great to race
against Tim again - we get along fine out of the car, but having
said that no driver has friends out on the track."
Blanchard, 20 and
another Victorian, took seven race wins on his way to the 2007
Australian Formula Ford crown, and is also a serial kart titlist.
He is one of four top-flight drivers registered by Jamun, which is
bidding to win its fourth consecutive British Formula Ford title.
Blanchard's team-mates will be 18-year-old Brazilian karting
champion Victor Correa and Britons Wayne Boyd, the
reigning Northern Ireland FF1600 Champion, and James Cole,
winner of the Club Formula Ford North-West title in 2007.
Correa is the
second young Brazilian to join the grid: 16-year-old karter Francisco
Weiller will race a new Comtec alongside the experienced Westley
Barber.
Further
international flavour will be provided by the JTR team, which has
signed Frenchman Philippe Layac and Dutch driver Rogier
de Wit to pilot its new Mygales. Parisian Layac, 24, made an
encouraging British Formula Ford debut last season while de Wit,
17, raced to 10th in the Dutch Duratec championship and enjoyed a
handful of UK outings.
JTR boss Joe Tandy
is another out to take the championship by storm: "That is
what we are in Formula Ford to do, and I believe that with
Philippe and Rogier, and hopefully a third car as well, we have a
strong chance. Philippe learned all the circuits last year and has
shown great promise in testing. We still have some work to do but
I am hoping to hit the ground running."
It's a big season
for JTR: in addition to its Formula Ford campaign it will be
contesting British Formula 3 also, with last year's BFF third
place man, Nick Tandy, in the driving seat.
Another Dutch
teenager, Chris Maliepaard, has meanwhile signed with Getem
Racing to pilot a Mygale alongside Linton Stuteley. Getem
Racing team boss Jason Down will join the championship
later in the season at the wheel of the latest Getem chassis.
"We are very
pleased to see such an international look to the British Formula
Ford Championship grid for 2008," said co-ordinator Penny
Mattocks, "and also that it is shaping up to be such a
healthy size. I have 20 confirmed registrations already and there
are more in the pipeline." Mattocks is expecting a grid of at
least 30 cars at the Easter opening rounds at Oulton Park. |
