Minda Motorsport

The CAMS Rising Stars continued their fine Victorian Formula Ford Championship form last weekend at Melbourne’s Sandown Raceway, with Garry Jacobson making it two wins from two rounds for the Minda Motorsport prepared Spectrums.

The eighteen year old claimed the Race 3 and overall win thanks to a sterling last lap move, capping off a weekend where all three CAMS Rising Stars drivers showed race winning potential.

Jacobson, who now heads the championship table after two rounds, was elated with taking his first Formula Ford race and round win in his debut appearance at Sandown.

CAMS Rising Star Matthew Brabham has taken an impressive leap forward in his rookie Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship season, finishing all three races in seventh position at Winton this weekend.

In just his third round at national level, the sixteen year old karting graduate proved capable of mixing it with far more experienced rivals – and moves into the top ten on the points table as a result.

Fifteen year old Liam Sager has stunned the established Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship stars by recording the sixth fastest practice time on his national series debut today at Winton.

Sager, who is the youngest driver in the field this weekend, is only scheduled to compete in two rounds of the 2010 national series as he focuses on the Victorian state title. This weekend marks Sager’s second ever Formula Ford race, after competing in the Victorian series at Phillip Island last month.

The Queenslander set the fourth fastest time in this morning’s opening practice session, and ended the day sixth on combined times, less than four tenths of a second behind championship favourite Chaz Mostert.

The 2010 CAMS Rising Stars squad are proving fast learners in their debut Genuine Ford Parts Australian Formula Ford Championship seasons, with all three drivers having scored championship points after the completion of Round 2 at Queensland Raceway this weekend

Team drivers Matthew Brabham, Jack Le Brocq and Garry Jacobson all showed top ten pace throughout the weekend at the notoriously challenging Ipswich circuit.

Having finished Friday practice in ninth position, 16 year old Brabham qualified fastest of the trio in 12th - just one place behind Ashley Walsh, who with 15 race wins sits fourth on the list of all-time Australian Formula Ford race winners.

The CAMS Rising Stars trio of Matthew Brabham, Jack Le Brocq and Garry Jacobson have ended the opening day of running at Queensland Raceway by clocking near identical lap times in the final practice session.

Just six hundredths of a second separated the youngsters in the afternoon, on what proved to be a challenging day for drivers trying to learn an ever-changing race track.

Over the weekend of 21st-22nd November MMS and some of its new CRS driver for 2010 had a chance to work together as a team for a race weekend for the first time at Island Magic at Phillip Island.  MMS had 2009 team driver Matthew Brabham and 2010 drivers Jack LeBrocq and Garry Jacobson for the event as a prelude to the 2010 season.

The team went to the stand alone meeting with no expectations, and with no pressure on the drivers to do anything other than to use it as a weekend to gain some experience and a chance to run with some experienced National Championship guys.  In saying that the team was hoping for a competitive show by all 3 drivers.

Friday went well with all 3 drivers running competitively and all of them were at the same pace on old tyres.  The team and drivers all got a lot out of Friday's five sessions.

As the Island Magic event is a stand alone event it's schedule is different to the other rounds FF do, as this weekend we has two Qualifying on Saturday and two races on Sunday.

Qualifying 1 was held at 10am, and it was hard to predict if Q1 or Q2 at 4pm would be the fastest session.  The weather at PI was unpredictable and making a call was merely guess work.  The 20 minute session started in its usual fashion as the swarm of FF's all jostled for the right track position to take full advantage of the tow on the high speed PI GP circuit.

Qualifying 2, as it turned out was dry and the faster session, again the CRS MMS trio did an exceptional job and when all the dust had settled we had 3 Rookies all in the top 10.  Matthew Brabham #83 was 4th, Garry Jacobson #55 was 6th and Jack LeBrocq #49 was 9th.  It was an outstanding job by all as this event was only Matthew Brabhams 3rd race meeting in a FF, Garry Jacobson's 2nd and Jack LeBrocq's 1st.  "For all our guys, with very little experience to be mixing it with the likes of Mostert and Uhrane is an excellent result.  All three should be proud of their efforts." stated CRS/MMS chief Bruin Beasley.

Race 1- When the team woke for Sunday morning it was very evident that it was going to be a trying day.  The rain had been falling all night and the new day was no better, it was wet and was going to be so all day.  Race 1 start was a mixed result for CRS/MMS team, #83 Matthew Brabham had a coming together at Honda with fellow spectrum driver Caleb Rayner, ending his Race on lap 1. "Disappointing way to end the race, but its part of racing and I hope to learn from it and make sure it doesn't happen again." sighed Brabham.

#49 Jack LeBrocq recovering from a slow start, put a sterling performance to drive past many drivers to finish an impressive 6th, and setting 3rd fastest lap. "I'm happy and I'm starting to feel confident in the car and its characteristics.  I made a mess of the start, but that was my first start, so all in all a good race." stated Le Brocq.  #55 Garry Jacobson had an eventful Race 1, starting 6th Garry ran with the lead group until he had a small off track excursion, sending him down the pack.  He then put his head down and came back to finish 8th. "Great fun.  I have a great affinity with the car and it gives me confidence to push." remarked Jacobson at the teams debrief after Race 1.

Race 2 - As the drivers headed out for Race 2 it was looking good for a dry race.  The weather had cleared and the sports car race had all but dried the track.  In typical PI style as the cars drove around on the warm up lap the rain started to fall, and with all cars on dry set ups it looked like an eventful race was about to start.  Sure enough at Bass kink for the first time it all went wrong.  Two cars clashed in front of Jack LeBrocq and Garry Jacobson, who were now running two astern, and with nowhere to go, forced themselves knee high in the gravel trap on the outside of the high speed corner. This car incident brought out the safety car and ended both Jack LeBrocq and Garry Jacobson's weekend.  Having missed the mayhem Matthew Brabham fought hard to put in an inspiring drive in appalling conditions to come home 3rd!  "To be on the podium with two of next years FF National series favorites is awesome, it's all starting to click for me." stated an ecstatic Brabham.

The CRS/MMS team now look forward to some extensive off season testing with the teams first round being at Winton in February, and National round at Albert Park GP meeting.

 

Minda Motorsport entered Round 4, the last of the Victorian State Championship at Phillip Island on the weekend of 26th September, with a real chance of again winning the FF1600 championship, pre 96 Championship and a podium position for the championship in the Sports Car class.

MMS team driver Jon Miles went into the last round with a small point difference in 2nd in the FF1600 Championship, Steve Cadden was also chasing down his first championship in the pre 96 FF Championship.  In his MMS prepared Porsche GT3, driver Dean Koutsoumidis would be in 2nd position in the Sports Car class. 

MMS also had 2 new members running with the team for the first time at Phillip Island, driving his MMS prepared 997 GT3 was Jan Jinadasa, and having his first run in his recently purchased FF Duratec was Brendan Jones.  Also part of the MMS squad for the weekend were Matt Brabham in the Duratec class, defending pre 96 champion Doug Williams, and Andrew McInnes in his 82 Lola Historic FF.

               Jan Jinadasa #77 Sports Cars