Hillyer wins the Blanchard

The Australian Formula Ford Series ran its annual end of season dinner last night for all teams and competitors at the Skyline room at Shell V Power Motorsport Park last night.

The night serves as a get together for all participants in the category to celebrate another successful year and to present the John Blanchard Snr Memorial Cup for the ‘Young Gun of the Year’. The Memorial Cup is voted on by a panel of Formula Ford members on a per round voting system. Points are awarded for improved speed, presentation, attitude, and growth.

The 2023 John Blanchard Snr Memorial Cup winner for 2023 was Matt Hillyer from Sonic Motorsport. Matt showed tremendous speed for the outset and was involved in some amazing battles with Zak Lobko in the first 2 rounds. While Matt’s speed did not necessarily improve through the year, it did remain consistently fast enough for him to wrap up the series in the second last round at Phillip Island.

Matt thankful for the opportunity “To win an award like the John Blanchard Snr Memorial Cup is amazing. I know how highly regarded the Blanchard family is in this sport and especially in Formula Ford. I need to thank my team at Sonic for always preparing the car in a way that gives me every chance each race meeting. I would also like to thank my parents and sponsors for giving me the opportunity to do what I do.”

The second award handed out on the night is the Formula Ford Hard Charger Award. This award is voted on by a panel of Formula Ford Members and awards votes to drivers who show improvement as a driver throughout the year not only on the track but also off it. It is an award that is to encourage a driver to continue their pathway to success.

This year the 2023 Hard Charger award was presented to Harrison Sellars. The Tasmanian started of the year slowly with results finding him in the mid pack battles until round 5 at Sandown when things just turned around for him. “Getting Pole position and a race win at Sandown just proved to me that I could really mix it with the series leaders, and it was fun. I learnt a lot about what my car could do that weekend and what I could do as well. I can’t thank the team at Altatek Racing enough for all the work they do with me and the car and my parents for supporting me in the sport.”

Matt Hillyer was also presented with the 2023 Australian Formula Ford Series trophy at the dinner having wrapped up the series at Phillip Island in the penultimate round.

The final 2 races of the year will be run at Shell V Power Motorsport today with second and third spots in the series still to be decided between Jake Santalucia and Zak Lobko.