Le Brocq takes maiden race victory at a weekend of ups and downs at Ipswich
August 29, 2011
CAMS Rising Star racers Trent Harrison and Jack Le Brocq were confident coming into the 4th round of the Australian Formula Ford Championship at Queensland Raceway after completing a successful round at Eastern Creek 5 weeks prior.
Both drivers have proven their skills on track this season through impressive development in vehicle speed and race craft, which has resulted in podium finishes in the last two rounds for the Penrite / Minda Motorsport duo.
Coming from a successful Winton test, the CAMS Rising Stars headed to the Ipswich event with a further confidence boost after having found additional gains in the cars, including improvements in the front and rear geometry giving the young guns a hopeful edge to attack with the front runners. While their race experience grows, so too does their understanding of the chassis behaviour and their total commitment to the task at hand – that first race win.
Jack Le Brocq
“With the form I’ve had so far I’m looking forward to the weekend and we’re looking to continue the positive results through this weekend, knowing that anything’s possible in the championship.
“We’re ready to push on and see if we can keep improving because the team is really confident in the speed and reliability, and the test has added to that.
“We know we have car speed now so a win can’t be too far away, plus being able to race in front of the V8 guys for a lot of the season now, hopefully we’ll turn a few heads.”
Harrison
“This will be my first time racing here, so it’s all fresh. I don’t think it’s the hardest track with only six corners, but that can be deceiving and hopefully I’ll get a grip in the first session and really get on it.
“I’m happy with how things have gone, sitting fourth in the championship, and I’m not there from luck, we’re there as we deserve to be so while I don’t think we’ll have too much pressure, we’ll certainly be pushing to see podium results again.”
It seems young Le Brocq’s prediction of a race win was spot on. Having run top five in both opening practice sessions, the #49 Mygale was again looking on the pace going into qualifying, with Le Brocq setting himself up on the third row for the Saturday race. Maintaining consistent pace through the 14 laps Le Brocq battled with Sager to the finish, in the end securing 4th place and a better starting position for race two. Le Brocq pounced from the green light to take the lead and never looked back. He took an outstanding maiden victory, holding off a Brabham attack and showing why he is a true challenger.
It was a more challenging outing for Le Brocq’s teammate Harrison however, who struggled for pace through the opening sessions, unable to master the balance of his #12 chassis. He was confident that he and his car had more to give, having come into his debut weekend at Queensland Raceway from a podium finish at the previous round.
After qualifying in the top 10, Harrison moved up to eighth position before the struggle for pace bit hard, seeing the young driver fall back to the edge of the top ten, eventually finishing in 11th.
Opening Sunday with a rain soaked track for race two, Harrison fought with his Mygale to find balance and push on. Harrison dropped further into the pack in the opening laps after a spin in front saw the #12 take a hit to the rear, before fighting his way back to 12th until a mechanical problem saw an early end in pit lane.
The weekend’s final race proved to be the most challenging of the round for the CAMS Rising Stars. After a good start in the #12 car, Harrison launched from the rear of the grid to 13th, his commitment evident as he moved into 9th, but sadly his machine dropped to three cylinders destroying the Rising Star’s chance to gain valuable points.
Off the line Jack’s #49 Penrite machine had to settle in behind Waters, and an aggressive Brabham soon muscled in to secure second position. However strong focus saw Le Brocq make the move to regain his place before pressing forward to be on the tail of Waters once more. A late error put Le Brocq back into the clutches of the hunting pack and with just two laps to go, Foster and Brabham made contact sending Brabham into the side of the Rising Star at turn four, firing him off the circuit. Brabham was later docked 5 Championship points for the incident – had the points been taken from his weekend’s tally, Le Brocq would have finished on the podium.
Le Brocq recovered to finish race 3 in eighth, giving him good points to add to his championship aspirations, taking him to 99 points and third in the standings. Teammate Harrison dropped from fourth to seventh where he sits on 73 points with four rounds remaining.
Jack Le Brocq
“Our weekend started slower than we would’ve liked but we have spent the year working towards speed.
“Race one was a good result, but it’s an awesome feeling to have all the hard work come together and get my first win in race two. It’s a real confidence boost as we know we’ve worked so hard this year and the team had been feeling so close to more and more positive results – now we’ve got it!
“Our last race didn’t go to plan, but this is racing and things happen, so from the weekend we can take away the positives, the win and the fact that we’ve proved we’re here for a reason and can achieve again.”
Trent Harrison
“It’s one of those weekends I’m glad it’s over – it was a hard run.
“We didn’t have the pace here, I was struggling with balance, but I felt like I was driving as well as I ever have so we’re not sure why this weekend was what it was.
“The whole weekend has been a case of scratching heads, when all looked good after our test, and now really we just don’t know but Sandown is next and that’s a track I love so we’ll go there and look to get back into the championship. We’ll be back.”
Bruin Beasley - Team Manager
“An up and down weekend for the guys, with Jack stepping up every time he goes out – he just gets on with the job and the race win was in challenging conditions so a very good job.
“Trent again had the challenges of racing, and having never been to the track he struggled with the bumps and couldn’t get it all together.
“The boys are showing they can achieve and overcome the challenges of the race track, so we’re very much looking forward to the next event at a track both boys know well as we keep moving forward.“
2011 Australian Formula Ford Championship (after four rounds)
- Cameron Waters, 176
- Nick Foster, 123
- Jack Le Brocq, 99
- Garry Jacobson, 93
- Matthew Brabham, 89
- Tom Williamson, 84
- Trent Harrison, 73
The AMSF Rookie Rising Star and CAMS Rising Stars are proudly supported by CAMS, the Australian Sports Commission, Minda Motorsport, Penrite, Go Markets, OAMPS, Relux Slabs, Revolution Racegear and Mark Webber.