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A GOOD WAY TO END 2009

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.

Phillip Island VSCRC Rnd 4

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.

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Jan Jinadasa #77 Sports Cars

Minda Motorsport announced as new team for CAMS Rising Star Program

The Australian Motor Sport Foundation (AMSF) has today announced that Minda Motorsport will be the official provider of racing services for the CAMS Rising Star Program for 2010-2011.

Founded in 2000, Minda Motorsport has achieved many competition wins and has also produced and engineered a number of award winning competition vehicles. In its nine years of operation the team, located in Caldermeade, Victoria, has earned a professional and hard working reputation.

Throughout the extensive tender process, Minda Motorsport demonstrated a shared philosophy with the AMSF, closely aligning to its mission to foster and nurture talented young Australian drivers - a crucial element in the evolution and success of the CAMS Rising Star Program moving forward.

AMSF General Manager martin Stillman is delighted about the appointment of Minda Motorsport as the racing services partner for 2010 and 2011.

"Minda has demonstrated the ability to nurture young talented drivers via its talent identification programs in a professional team environment," Stillman said.

COMPETITIVE SHOW FOR MINDA AT QLD RACEWAY

The Minda Motorsport team made the journey up to the sunny state of QLD for Round 6 of the Australian Formula Ford Championship, making his return to the team was #10 Jesse Dixon, who missed the Sandown round to test a Formula BMW in Malaysia. MMS also took on local driver and 08 team member #63 Martin Swindells, who was having his first run since Round 2 at Winton.

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#63 Martin Swindells #10 Jesse Dixon

In the preceding week Minda Motorsport had a good shake down at Phillip Island, giving the team the chance to make sure all was OK with the cars before the round, and it also gave Nick McBride some more seat time. On the same day Minda Motorsport tested with state driver Matthew Brabham and Formula Vee stand out, Jack LeBrocq ,both doing a fantastic job.

The teams weekend started on a high note with Minda Motorsport again winning best presented car for #74 Nick McBride. This is two meetings in a row, with the team winning it at the last round with #8 Tom Tweedie in the Kanga Batman Tafe car.

Both Practice 1 and 2 went as the team had planned, and these sessions were used as familiarisation sessions for all 4 drivers.

Qualifying was at 8:45am in beautiful sunny and warm conditions, the team had spent a long time going over the data from the previous days practice sessions and came up with what they thought was going to be a good car and plan for all 4 drivers, and it was. Ben Walter, #25, did a great job qualifying 4th on his own, missing out on a tow, "If I had got a tow I could have been top 2, but I'm happy to be next to championship leader Nick Percat". The next Minda Motorsport driver was #10, Jesse Dixon, who did an exceptional job to qualify 7th on his return, "It was great. The car was awesome, and to be that close the front makes all the hard work worth while, two tenths would have put me in 4th" In 9th position was #63, Martin Swindells who stated "the team put their new shock package into my car for Qualifying, and it's a different car, just so much better to drive over the bumps. I love it." Next was #74 Nick McBride in 11th position "I'm disappointed with 11th; I was well inside the 10 in practice. I just need to work on it"

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#25 Ben Walter # 74 Nick McBride

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Darwin National Round 4

After making the 4 day trip to Darwin the team set up on Thursday for a weekend full of promise. After performing well last year on his first trip to Hidden Valley and at the last round, in his home state of Tasmania, Ben Walter was ready to take on the world! Both Jesse Dixon and Nick McBride were at Hidden Valley for the first time and after track tours with Walter and their driver coach on Thursday they all hit the track early Friday for practice. In this practice Walter, glad to be back up North, completed the session a competitive 6th. Jesse loved his first taste of the north, feeling his way at 15th, and McBride showed promise of a good weekend sitting 12th.

Gridding up Walter #25 and Mc Bride #74 Pit shot

Qualifying came on a morning the locals descrided as freezing - it was only 16 degrees! The southerners thought this lovely after 30 the previous day. As the day warmed up so did the action on the track. Unfortunately our pace did not come as the session went on only finishing 11th, 14th, and 15th. All of our cars were under the old lap record but we had some work to do!

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Symmons Plains Round 3

The National Formula Ford Championship headed to Australia’s most southern state, Tasmania, for it’s 3^rd round on the last weekend of May. MMS drivers Ben Walter, Jesse Dixon and Nick McBride all headed down with justified confidence after their great outings so far in 2009.

Practice 1 was an extreme highlight of the weekend with rookie driver and future star, Jesse Dixon, setting the pace. It was Jesse’s first time to lead the time sheet and in only his fifth race meeting. To be fastest at a National FF round is an amazing effort and we're sure it won’t be the last time he will do so.

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Brabham joins Kangan Batman Tafe and Minda Motorsport

Matthew Brabham has teamed up with the Kangan Batman Tafe and Minda Motorsport to debut in the teams Formula Ford later this year.

Matthew's aim is to race at the last two rounds of the Victorian State Formula Ford Championship to be held at the Sandown circuit on July 18-19 and the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit on September 26-27.

The final decision will be decided after testing in early July if to enter the Sandown event or wait until Phillip Island later in the year.

"My testing programme has been going well, and I am feeling more comfortable in the car every time I drive. I am going to make a decision after the next test when I am going to start racing, as I have just turned 15 years old I have plenty of time and there is no point rushing things at this stage. I would like to take the opportunity to thank Greg Moulden from the Kangan Batman Tafe and Bruin Beasley from Minda Motorsport for all their support" Matthew said.

2009 National Season Begins

This weekend marks the beginning of the 2009 National Formula Ford Championship and Minda Motorsport will back up it's fantastic debut year at national level in 2008, where it was the most successful 4 car team. Consistently all of the 4 cars were in the top 10 and regularly in the lead group. The team also had a race win, in it's feet finding year with a new spectrum chassis, after winning 6 state titles with the Van Diemen chassis.

The team takes up where it left off with 4 cars and 3 new drivers. Ben Walter will make his first appearance at the Albert Part circuit in his MMS spectrum 011c after a great rookie season in car racing seeing a high of 5th at Phillip Island and his off season testing is showing his real natural speed. Joining the team for 2009 is young 16yr old Jesse Dixon who has only one race under his belt (Tasmania 2008) where he had a sensational top 10 finish on debut to motor racing and Formula Ford. Also young Nicholas McBride joins the MMS family for 2009, having a very limited 2008 state season.

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