Anton De Pasquale secured the last Australian Formula Ford Championship title by taking a clean sweep of victories at Phillip Island.
The points leader cruised to the chequered flag in the first of Sunday’s races, but he was made to work a lot harder in the second. The results were enough to earn him the title with a round remaining a Homebush.
This season is the last for the Formula Fords running as a CAMS championship, with the class set to be reborn as a national series in 2014.
De Pasquale led from pole in Sunday’s opening race and was largely untroubled throughout the encounter.
The real battle was for the other podium positions as Liam Sager and Macauley Jones continued their weekend scrap.
Sager held second on the opening lap before Jones grabbed the position on the following lap. By lap five Jones began to hold the field up and four car battle developed for second.
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The complexion soon changed when Jones was spun around at Turn 6. This allowed Sam Power and Simon Hodge through to second and third respectively. Jones retired while Sager was bumped down the order.
James Golding capitalised on the Jones incident too and it wasn’t long before he stormed up to second. He held onto the position with Power in third.
De Pasquale was faced with a much stronger battle in the second race despite leading from the start.
However, he soon came under attack on the second lap when Golding breezed around the outside for the lead at Turn 1.
A lap later the action at the front went up another notch, as third placed Power used De Pasquale and Golding’s tow to move around the pair and grab the lead.
On lap six De Pasquale found himself all over Power and he slipped down the inside at Turn 4 to move to the head of the field.
Once in the lead, he began to stretch a lead which he took the chequered flag, winning the championship in the process.
Power finished second while Golding claimed the final place on the podium in third.
The weekend though was all about the champion, who delivered yet another title to Mick Ritter’s crack Sonic Motor Racing Services outfit.
“I wanted to make sure I could have a perfect weekend given the way the first two races went,” said De Pasquale.
“It would’ve been bad to have won the first two that way and not have the perfect weekend so I tried to win it as hard as I could.
“The championship was in the back of my mind.. but it was a great race and would have been pretty good for the fans watching!”
