CAMS Rising Stars step out at Winton
August 05, 2011
Coming into round two of the 2011 Australian Formula Ford Championship, CAMS Rising Stars Trent Harrison and Jack Le Brocq had received this season’s baptism of fire on the streets of Adelaide, and arrived to the Winton circuit fresh and filled with confidence for a successful and positively action packed event.
Today’s opening practice session was a typical motor sport day out with both drivers completing minimal laps, Harrison due to an engine misfire across the session, while Le Brocq was showing pace but struggling to manage oversteer and balance concerns.
Harrison, piloting the #12 Mygale SJ11A, completed the out lap before spending time in the pits while the Minda Motorsport team assessed the plaguing misfire. Returning to the circuit for a second trial lap with no improvement,
Harrison ended the session in the pits placed 19th on the time sheets.
Le Brocq, on board the #49 Minda Motorsport/CAMS Rising Stars machine, went straight to the top ten and held a consistent pace through the first half of the session, pitting for some balance adjustments before returning to the track to close the session in a comfortable seventh.
Practice two and the track now had rubber down, but it was on for another 20 minutes where Harrison was hesitant to push but Le Brocq was out there to go one better.
Harrison again took just an introductory lap, heading to the lane for further inspection of the continuing misfire, before hitting the track to finish the days track time posting times consistently in the mid 1:27s and going into qualifying from 16th, much further back than the young racer was hoping.
Le Brocq was immediately looking for more pace, posting mid range times before pitting for additional minor setup changes to see what more was in his Mygale SJ11A. Returning to the track once more, the young Victorian carving more than a second off his earlier times to go 12th in the session and head into qualifying quietly confident.
Trent Harrison:“We’ve got the engine misfiring so we haven’t really been able to do any laps today which is disappointing.
“Looks like we’re definitely going to be behind where we should be, but we’ll do our best to get on top of this, and in the process have nailed a few other things in the setup, so now tomorrow we’ll chip away and see what we can come up with.
“I know this circuit back to front, but at the moment this weekend comes down to setup and with the engine drama that’s just not going well so far.”
Jack Le Brocq“After racing here last year in the national series and being it’s our main testing track, I’ve done quite a few laps so I’m definitely confident with the circuit.
“We had some good pace here in testing last weekend, but today we’re struggling more than what we thought we would with setup issues and the older tyres, but we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
“We’ll be making lots of changes overnight to make the car nicer, along with new tyres, improving the front to rear stability to eliminate the oversteer on power down, and from there we’ll see how far up we can go.”
Australian Formula Ford Championship – Round 2
Practice 11 Waters 1:26.0728
2 Foster
3 Brabham
4 Jacobson
5 Davies
- - - - -
7 Le Brocq 1:26.9544 (+0.8816)- - - - -
19 Harrison 1:29.2091 (+3.1363)Practice 21 Brabham 1:26.4503
2 Foster
3 Jacobson
4 Waters
5 Sager
- - - - -
12 Le Brocq 1:27.2813 (+0.8310)- - - - -
16 Harrison 1:27.5360 (+1.0857)The CAMS Rising Stars will be back on track tomorrow for qualifying from 1000 EST, followed by race one from 1250 EST.
The CAMS Rising Stars are proudly supported by CAMS, the Australian Sports Commission, Minda Motorsport, Penrite, OAMPS, Relux Slabs, Revolution Racegear and Mark Webber.