PRESS RELEASE – Safety car in Race 3 ends round win hopes at Sandown

 

The penultimate round of the 2016 CAMS Jayco Australian Formula 4 season threw up just about every twist and turn in the paddock.

A Race 3 protest against leader Will Brown was upheld but only a reprimand given so the round went to the Towoomba kid.

Race 2 also saw a shake-up of the order following a scruitineer decision to exclude Will Brown for a technical infringement.

In the end, after a close battle between Will Brown, Jordan Love and Nick Rowe the Queenslander took the round win and extended his lead in the Championship leaving AGI Sport/SCT Logistics driver Nick Rowe in third place.

Racing started early with a late afternoon Race 1 on a jam-packed Friday that included two practice sessions and qualifying.

Nick Rowe started from third eventually getting the jump on Jordan Love and Will Brown to briefly lead the race before an off at Dandenong Road relegated him to fifth place.

Nick was circumspect, “We had a good qualifying session, qualified third. Race 1 we got to the lead and I made an error on my behalf in Race 1 but we moved on from that,” Nick said.

AGI Sport/SCT Logistics teammate Jack Smith was unhappy with his first race as he struggled to regain his pace in practice finishing eighth on the Friday.

“Friday was a bit of an up and down day for us. It didn’t end too well. We had good pace in the first practice then it all went kind of down hill from there. The first race didn’t really go to plan, we were just struggling with a bit of overall pace, with a bit of car set-up,” The young Queenslander said.

A good nights sleep and just the one race session on the Saturday put the team back on track for a podium result.

West Australian Nick Rowe was straight out the gate with a solid start. A bit of back luck for Tyler Everingham sent that young driver into the sand trap and Nick capitalised on his line to take the #97 to the front of the pack.

Nick was excited to be at the front, “Race 2 we got to first, we got to the lead we got away a bit then we had a few gear box problems. Will eventually got past us, he probably did have a bit more speed. But we caught up to him a bit and then another issue came aboard but we still managed to finish third.”

Jack Smith felt his second outing was an advancement on the challenges of Friday.

“The second race was an improvement we are closing in on the times and the car is getting better,” Jack smiled.

Sunday dawned to grey skies and a soaked track. Formula 4 was first out on the schedule and more drops began to fall as the cars lined up on the dummy grid.

The wet track suited Nick Rowe who was confident after his record win in the wet at Sydney Motorsport Park in 2015 but many of the other young drivers had never handled an F4 in the wet and there were plenty of nerves as the cars pulled out.

Nick was starting off P4 with Jack Smith P8. Harry Hayek went wide on the first turn and Rowie managed to pass Love and Hayek to jump from fourth to second.

In the third lap the wet conditions proved too much for Josh Denton who smashed into a guardrail and then locked up the entire front end. With nowhere to go he collected Josh Conroy and the pair ended up tangled together deep in a tyre wall. It’s a testament to the safety of the Formula 4 carbon fibre monocoque that both boys walked away unscathed from the horror crash.

The cars took the rest of the race to clear and the remaining laps were rolled out under the safety car. The final order under the chequered flag was Brown, Rowe, Love, Hayek, Grove, Smith Fallon and Everingham with Denton, Conroy and Donald all DNF.

A protest was lodged by AGI Sport after it was noticed that Will Brown entered pit lane under safety car. He quickly realised his mistake and reversed out again weaving through the grid to re-join the front of the pack but it was enough to contravene the Formula 4 rules and a formal protest was lodged with race control.

Will was given a reprimand and the race standing stood with Nick Rowe. That left Nick in second for Race 3 and third for the round behind Will Brown and Jordan Love.

Nick had been looking forward to the wet track, “Race three in the wet. We started fourth and the car was great we were able to get to second basically straight away and we caught up to Will at the first lap and then the safety car came out and unfortunately that’s just how it all finished.”

“One round to go at the Gold Coast they game plan is just to go out there and everything I’ve got everything I can put on the line cos that’s the only way that’s the only way I’m going to win. If I can win every race I’ve done all I can,” Nick said.

The marquee Gold Coast round will be the final outing for Formula 4 in 2016 with a few overseas drivers rumoured to be joining the pack.

The round will take place on a challenging street circuit from October 21-23.