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Slade Sets The Pace In Formula Ford At Sandown |
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Friday, 01 September 2006 |
Tim Slade, in the Dexion Van Diemen RF04, will be the one to catch this weekend after setting the fastest time today in both the practice and qualifying sessions.
In the one and only 20-minute practice session, Tim Slade in the Sonic Motor Racing Services Dexion Van Diemen RF06 continued his recent strong form setting the quickest time with a 1:16.9570, 0.2096 seconds ahead of current championship leader John Martin in the Borland Racing CAMS Rising Star Spectrum 011.
The youngest driver in the field at just 16-years-of-age, Josh Scott in his Kubota Australia Spectrum 011 continued his recent speed with the third fastest time just 0.2918 seconds of the pace ahead of Tim Blanchard, also from Sonic, in his Jayair/Sanden Van Diemen RF04 who was 0.2972 seconds behind team mate Slade.
Fifth and 0.3610 seconds off the pace was newcomer Taz Douglas, current Victorian Formula Ford 1600 series leader, who will drive the Sandown round of the national series for experience before a full assault on next years title.
Ashley Walsh, Brad Lowe and previous round winner Dale Wood were all within a second of the time set by Slade in sixth to eighth respectively.
Todd Fiore and Joel Spychala rounded out the top ten for the session.
With only the one practice session, setup in qualifying was going to be crucial.
Slade again set the pace in qualifying ahead of rival Martin and Spychala who had found extra speed from practice.
Walsh, Wood and Nathan Caratti followed closely behind while the top ten all set times within a second of pole.
While much of the field continued to push, most drivers set their fastest lap early in the session, as is often the case in Formula Ford and Slade, with a 1:16.3392, held on to pole position ahead of Martin (1:13.4754) and Spychala (1:16.5217) who had his best qualifying result this year.
"The car felt really great, particularly in qualifying when we put the new tyres on.we didn't make any changes between the two sessions as we thought the new tyres would bring the car up to where we wanted it so it has all worked out well for the weekend," Tim Slade said.
With a best ever qualifying result, Spychala was elated with his mornings work.
"We're stoked with third, we got a good time in early and decided to then focus on race setup so we know what we want to do for the races too so it was a great session," Joel Spychala said.
One late charger was Caratti in the Firepower/Fastlane Racing entry who set the fourth fastest time in his final lap to jump to fourth on the grid ahead of Walsh and Wood.
Brad Lowe improved his position to seventh, while Blanchard, Todd Fiore and Douglas rounded out the top ten.
Josh Scott was unable to replicate his practice position and fell to 12th position ahead of last rounds pole sitter Grant Doulman.
The first two races for round five of the Australian Formula Ford Championship at Sandown Raceway will be run on tomorrow with the final third race on Sunday.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 05 January 2007 )
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