Fastest qualifier, Torti (Spectrum 06B) led the first race from start to finish. On a couple of occasions, Richardson (Van Diemen RF89) tried at Turn 7 to take the lead, on the outside and the inside but to no avail. Sitting just behind them in third place was Speedcafe’s Andrew Van Leeuwan (RF93), ready to pick up a place if one presented itself.
The trio were over nine seconds up the road from William Hall (Van Diemen Stealth S3) who had a lonely run in fourth spot. For much of the race Ben McNamara (RF88) was next until three laps from the end when he was relegated by Matt Dicinoski (RF06).
The latter started 16th out of the 18 on the grid and finished in front of Peter Fitzgerald (Spectrum 011B), Mark Zellner (Mygale SJ01A) and Bo Jensen (Swift SE61) who had to recover from an off at the Northern Hairpin earlier. The only non-finisher was Jeff Senior in his Swift FB91 had contact with the John Pereira RF92 in the first corner after the start.
Race 2 was hardly underway when it was red flagged. Richardson won the start ahead of Torti, Hall and Van Leeuwen. At the Southern Loop, Hall ran over the nose of a sideways Torti and broke the latter’s steering.
There was a long delay due to a medical episode in another category before the race was rerun. It was good news for Torti as his crew were able to repair his damaged steering.
Richardson again won the start and steadily opened a gap Torti narrowly headed Hall, Van Leeuwen, Dicinoski and Jensen. Torti resisted the challenge at Turn 7 from Hall on the third lap. But in that bid Hall lost out to Van Leeuwen.
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Over the ensuing laps Dicinoski was able to pass Hall and ultimately snared Van Leeuwen as well. Jensen was sixth, clear of Young and Fitzgerald with Rowe next from Pereira and Senior.
The Formula Ford Nationals continues Saturday with races at 11:10 am and 2:00 pm before the final at 5:00 pm ACDT. The action will be livestreamed on the Mallala Motorsport Park Facebook page with free-to-air coverage on SBS Viceland and SBS On Demand from 1:00 to 5:00 pm AEDT and continuing with Kayo.
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