Tough Weekend At QLD For TK Racing
Tobia
Kipper Racing headed to the desolate tract just a few hours west of
Brisbane over the weekend. Queensland Raceway just made up seven turns
and renowned for its paper-clip circuit proved quite the challenge for
the young gun. Kipper recently competed in the Eastern Creek round
coming out with sixth overall all, bumping him up to ninth in the
Australian Championship. Kipper was looking to continue his form after
successfully finishing top ten in both Winton and Eastern Creek.
Qualifying:
With Kipper missing out on practice two due to brake problems, the
teams’ fingers were crossed hoping for the mechanical hitches to cease.
With sixteen drivers within a margin of under a second, Kipper managed
to qualify twelfth.
“I wasn’t too pleased with the result
as I was looking to at least place in the top ten. With the mechanical
setbacks in practice two, I’m still on my back-foot because of the lack
of quality laps I got in practice”, said Kipper.
Race One:
With a decent get away, Kipper was
looking to fight his way through the field. This was always going to be
difficult as all of the racers were extremely competitive. With the
first lap being hectic, Kipper managed to escape some close calls.
After dropping back after being forced wide into the dirt at turn
seven, Kipper managed to fight back to a final result of eleventh.
“The first lap was interesting,
straight out everyone was pretty much we’re going crazy! However I was
pleased to stay out of trouble and at move up one spot,” explained
Kipper.
Race Two:
Kipper
once again had an excellent start. Though, the team made the decision
to make a slight change with the Formula Ford. Unfortunately it didn’t
work in Kippers’ favor as he was shuffled back in the field due to
unpredicted track conditions.
“I
was pleased with my start. I gained three positions, but as the race
followed through I was finding it difficult to maintain the pace. My
left rear tyre began to fade making it tough to defend my current
position on the run to turn three”.
Race Three:
The MakoTrac team making another change to the rear of the Formula Ford
improved Kipper’s Spectrum to battle through the field. After starting
thirteenth on the grid, Kipper fought up to tenth position. Heading
into lap six, Kipper was competing heavily up against Jonathon Grant
and Adam Graham. On the run to turn three, Grant out-braked himself
skidding into the rear of Grahams’ Spectrum, causing both Formula Fords
to spin. This forced Kipper off into the gravel traps where he
successfully rejoined the track. Unfortunately Kipper lost vital
positions undoing all his hard work.
Kipper stated, “I had a fantastic race!
It was unfortunate that the incident on lap six on turn three occurred.
I know I would have been able to score some points for this weekend.
This round has been one of my toughest yet and I will go away learning
a great deal from it”.
Tobia Kipper still sits in 9th position in the 2007 Formula Ford Championship.
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