PRESS RELEASE – Rowe takes third in 2016 opener

 

SCT Logistics driver Nick Rowe has fought hard through all three races for a podium finish in the opening round of the CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4 Championship.

The young West Australian held third place behind Jordan Love and Will Brown in the final race to secure third place for the round and some valuable championship points.

“Race 3 was pretty intense really, we got off the line well. We couldn’t quite stick with the boys from BRM, they’ve got those things hooked up down the straight line so hopefully improve on that before the next round and I improve my driving a bit and we run a bit closer to them,” Nick said.

Nick was happy with his driving over the weekend and managed to avoid the incidents that brought some of the other drivers unstuck early on in the round.

“Overall it was a pretty good weekend. We finished third, probably only about eight points behind in the championship, all pretty close so hopefully we can close that gap at Phillip island and come away with the round win,” he said.

Rowe drove hard in the second race to finish second from a sixth place start and was happy to finish in the points for the weekend.

“Through turns 1 and 2 its quite hard not to lock a wheel and its actually quite hard braking down the back here and all about the exits so there’s a lot of time to gain but only three corners to do it on,” Nick said.

SCT Logistics team mate Jack Smith overcame a disappointing first race in which he was relegated to the pits with a bent steering arm early following an on-track incident.

However Race 2 saw the young Queenslander take it home in fourth place with a very respectable fifth place finish in Race 3 having held off team mate Josh Conroy for most of the race.

“It’s been really good to get out to the first race meeting. Practice and everything all went reasonably well, a little bit off the times but you know we are slowly getting there, now into the racing,” Jack said.

“First race wasn’t so good obviously but the second race was a lot better for me finishing P4.

New South Welshman Joshua Conroy put in some very respectable laps considering he’d never driven a Formula 4 car before first practice on Friday.

“I’ve come to Formula 4 because I’ve been running at a state level championship in my career in a Radical SR3 so it was a logical step. It is pretty close to the driving style I’m used to and it’s a good stepping stone to get to national level motorsport’ Conroy explained.

“Race 1 was a bit of a challenge, I wasn’t too happy in the car… went home overnight, reviewed the data, reviewed the video made changes to the car, came back and race two has been awesome.

Josh made some strong improvements over the weekend and adapted himself to car each time he went out on track.

“Overall I’m pretty happy with how the round went. Come a long way since Friday in particular and I’m pretty happy with how I have ended up, “ Josh smiled.

“My highlight was race 2 when I really got on top of the car and could push hard.”

All three boys will now focus on the next round at Phillip Island in less than two weeks. The second round of the CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4 Championship will hit the Victorian race track April 15-17.