A SWEEP IN SYDNEY AS MAGRO ENTERS TITLE CONTENTION A LAST MINUTE Cash injection from his long-term sponsor has paid off for Queensland driver John Magro. Days away from being forced to sit out the round due to a lack of funds, Magro was handed a lifeline from a loyal backer that got him on the grid and into victory lane in round four of the Formula 3 Australian Drivers Championship this weekend in Sydney. He beat home Gold Star Championship leader Tim Macrow and R-Tek Motorsport’s Nathan Morcom in today’s 12-lap feature race at Sydney Motorsport Park and can now consider himself a championship contender. The result completed a clean sweep of victories this weekend for Magro and rocketed him to second place in the championship, just 13 markers behind his Team BRM teammate Tim Macrow. Macrow (115 points) leads Magro (102) and Nick Foster (89) after four of seven rounds this year. Today’s feature actually featured two starts – the race red flagged immediately following the initial start due to several cars being incorrectly gridded. The cars raced to turn one prior to the red flag being shown, the race cut two laps from its original duration. Ironically, Magro was beaten to turn one by Tim Macrow the first time around; but the second attempt would be much different. “I’d like to think that I would have passed Tim had the race stayed green anyway,” Magro said. “My car was amazing all weekend and I made sure he didn’t get past on the opening lap – from there I just pushed and pushed and pushed. I pushed as hard as I could every lap because I wanted the bonus point for fastest lap - At this stage of the year, every point helps. “It’s been the perfect weekend and this should help us go on with it. It’s massive thanks to my sponsors FNQ Lager for helping us out this weekend and getting us here – it’s going to make going on to Queensland in three weeks much, much easier. “We’re going to keep doing what we’re doing and keep this momentum up.” Second for Tim Macrow actually built his championship lead to 13 points, whilst Nathan Morcom was elevated to third place after Jordan Oon – who crossed the line in a podium position – was penalised 33 seconds for not correctly following the start procedure. It was a tough day for Mygale pilot Nick Foster, who was excluded from fourth position after failing a post-race technical inspection on the engine airbox. The change elevated Ben Gersekowski to fourth and Steel Guiliana to a top five finish in his borrowed racing car. 18-year-old South Australian Todd Hazelwood broke his Formula 3 duck when he crossed the line to win the Forpark Australia National Class race today, beating home points leader Arrie Maree by less than one second. In a tense race, Hazelwood resisted a final-lap challenge from Maree to score his maiden win, much to his delight. “We have all put so much into this and to finally get a great result like this is amazing,” the Fujitsu / R-Tek driver said. “It was an unreal battle! the pressure was on the whole way through. My tyres were going off and I was struggling for grip and I thought he (Arrie) had me in turn two on the last lap. “I’ve been focussing on my consistency and I hope we can go on from here and win some more races.” Marree still comfortably leads the Forpark standings with three rounds to go. The next round of the Formula 3 Australian Drivers’ Championship will be held at Queensland Raceway on August 2-4, with the Shannons Nationals.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 10:58:00 +0000
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