Australian Formula Ford kicks off at SMP this weekend!

Everything is in place for the opening round of the 2021 Australian Formula Ford Championship at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend. A highly competitive 17-car field will be joining the AMRS event after a forced break in 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions and closed borders.

Rookies will comprise more than half of the grid, with some familiar faces expected to put on a show at the front of the field.

Tom Sargent, Cody Donald and Cody Burcher are expected to be the outright title contenders this season - Sargent especially rated after a dominant clean sweep at the Victorian Championship event at Sandown in recent weeks.

In 2021 we will welcome another chassis manufacturer to the Duratec field, with Sydney-based Anglo Motorsport presenting their Spirit WL07 at National level. The #77 Spirit will be driven by Mitch Gatenby, who won the 2019 and 2020 NSW FF1600 Championship and is now stepping up to the Duratec class.

In the Kent field, we expect National rookies Simon Hodges and Daniel Frougas to challenge the more experienced Josh Glinn for the 2021 Australian FF1600 Championship.

The weekend schedule will see Formula Ford's on track on Friday for three practice sessions, with racing kicking off on Saturday. Qualifying and three races will be held across the weekend.
 

Weekend schedule (Sydney time)

Friday

Practice 1 - 10.45am
Practice 2 - 1.42pm
Practice 3 - 4.24pm

Saturday

Qualifying - 10.20am
Race 1 - 1.16pm

Sunday

Race 2 - 11.11am
Race 3 - 2.46pm

Entry list

Formula Ford class (Duratec powered):

#2 Valentino Astuti - Mygale SJ15A (R)
#14 Clay Richards - Spectrum 015 (R)
#34 Kyle Evans - Spectrum 014 (R)
#35 Jake Donaldson - Spectrum 011D
#36 Cody Burcher - Spectrum 012B
#47 Thomas Sargent - Mygale SJ13A
#60 Cody Donald - Spectrum 014B
#65 Noah Sands - Mygale SJ10 (R)
#77 Mitchell Gatenby - Spirit WL07 (R)
#79 Jude Bargwanna - Spectrum 012B (R)
#88 Harrison Goodman - Mygale SJ09A
#93 James Piszcyk - Spectrum 014 (R)

FF1600 class (Kent powered):

#27 Daniel Frougas - Spectrum 09C (R)
#31 Simon Hodges - Spectrum 010B (R)
#71 John Pereira - Van Diemen RF92
#80 Jason Liddell - Swift SC93F
#94 Joshua Glinn - Spirit K08
2021 Australian Formula Ford Championship calendar:

 

Round 1: 6-7 March at Sydney Motorsport Park (AMRS)*
Round 2: 21-23 May at Wakefield Park Raceway (NSW State)
Round 3: 11-13 June at Winton Motor Raceway (AMRS)
Round 4: 23-25 July at Sandown Raceway (Vic State)
Round 5: 6-8 August at Queensland Raceway (AMRS)*
Round 6: 24-26 September at Phillip Island GP Circuit (Vic State)
Round 7: 3-5 December at The Bend Motorsport Park (AMRS)*

*denotes rounds of the 2021 Australian FF1600 Championship