2011 End of Year Review

As the year comes to an end I would like to say a very big thank you to all the people that have helped me along the way in 2011.   In particular,  I would like to thank my main sponsors Terry Kernan at Ontime and John and Simon at FCS.   Jeff Stenner from A1 Signs has been fantastic with the graphics and other promotional  stuff.   Likewise Greg Scown has been terrific with any welding we have needed and Roger Jukes at Kyneton Tyres has been super helpful doing our tyre fitting and balancing.    Also a thank you to Jonny Liebenberg  from Breamar College who has helped on the PR front.   Your help through the year has contributed to the success we had in 2011.   

At the track I would like to thank Sean Scott my race engineer and also my team mate Scott Andrews who has driven like a champion all year.   I would also like to thank  the guys at Borland Racing for their help and Mark Potter and Luke and John Ellery for getting me started in Formula Ford.   A special thanks goes to Brian Sampson for allowing me to drive his car at the Island Magic Meeting.    Thanks also to Taylor Stenner and Scott and Tom Mayer for their help in the pits through the year.

The FFA also deserves a mention and in particular Phil Marrinon and Andrew Sill for the countless hours of work they do behind the scenes.   

Finally a big thanks goes to Mum and Dad and Katie my sister for their help and support in 2011.

2011 has been a great year, thank you all.

Formula Ford 1600 Results summary 

  

Round 1 Winton                                               Qualifying                    - Pole   

Race 1                         - 1st

Race 2                         - 1st

            Race 3                         - 1st

Round 2 Phillip Island                                     Qualifying                    - P4   

Race 1                         - 4th

Race 2                         - 3rd

Race 3                         - DNF

Round 3 Sandown                                           Qualifying                    - P3   

Race 1                         - 3rd

Race 2                         - 5th

Race 3                         - 3rd

Round 4 Sandown                                           Qualifying                    - P2   

Race 1                         - 3rd

Race 2                         - 2nd

Race 3                         - 1st

Round 5 Winton                                               Qualifying                    - Pole   

Race 1                         - 1st

Race 2                         - 1st

Race 3                         - 2nd

Round 6 Phillip Island                                     Qualifying                     - P2   

Race 1                         - 3rd

Race 2                         - 2nd

Race 3                         - 2nd

Island Magic                                                    Qualifying                    - P2   

Race 1                         - 2nd

Race 2                         - 2nd

Race 3                         - 2nd

Lockie Marshall

NARRA Photography

We would like to thank Greg Llewellyn from NARRA Photography for the

track and paddock photographs he has taken throughout the year.    All of

Greg's eye catching shots, both of cars and people can be viewed on his   

website www.narraphotography.com.au  or he can be contacted at photography@auditservices.com.au

2011 Island Magic – Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit.

In capping off his successful first year of racing,  young  teenager Lockie Marshall scored three podium results at the Island Magic meeting at Phillip island last weekend.

The newly crowned CAMS Formula Ford 1600 Victorian champion was piloting Brian Sampson's Speco VHT  Spectrum 06,  prepared by Borland Racing Developments.

Marshall qualified 2nd in the Kents to team mate Scott Andrews who outpaced most of the Duratec field.   For Lockie,  qualifying 2nd was all the more remarkable as he had not driven the Spectrum 06  prior to the qualifying session which was run on a rain soaked track.   The conditions were so bad  that the Clerk-of-Course delayed racing for over an hour till the rain eased.   Marshall commented after his qualifying session. " I'm really happy with my effort, the first couple of laps were pretty dicey  as the car felt very different to what I am used to.   Luckily in the last two laps I was able to pull it together and got a clean lap in".

After qualifying the rain eased and the first race was relatively straight forward although the track was still wet.   Marshall came in second to race winner Andrews.

Sunday brought much finer weather with both heat two and the final being run on a dry track.   The second heat was the same as the heat one with Lockie finishing 2nd to Andrews.   In the final it was a different story.   Marshall had to start from pit lane due to a mechanical issue which left him with the task of catching the field after the start.   With a very determined and focused drive Lockie was able two make his way back through the field to second place prior to the chequered flag on lap 10.

Marshall commented after the race.  " I would like to thank Brian for lending me his car for the meeting,  it performed well, and it is very encouraging for a young driver like myself to have such help from one of the real legends of Australian motorsport."  

Brian Sampson is an active motorsport competitor with an impressive CV.  Amongst many of his notable achievements he won Bathurst in 1975 co-driving with Peter Brock.   Brian runs the company Speco which specialises in High performance automotive accessories and distributes specialist VHT automotive paints.

Two championship wins for young Rookie

Phillip Island  -  23rd October, 2011.   

In a nail bighting finish to the 2011 Formula Ford 1600 racing season, young Victorian rookie, Lockie Marshall continued his run of speed and consistency to take out the both the CAMS Victorian Circuit Racing Championship and the Formula Ford Association Formula Ford 1600 Championship in his Spectrum 010B.

Competing at the picturesque Phillip Island GP Circuit, the field of 15 drivers endured variable conditions on the Friday and Saturday and raced under near perfect conditions on Sunday for the all important final.

After qualifying 2nd to team mate Scott Andrews (former Commodore Cup young gun) Race 1 saw Marshall come home third to Andrews and second placed Greg Woodrow in his Mygale.

In Race 2 Marshall started off on row two and made a clean pass on Woodrow early in the race to come home second to Andrews with a sizable gap to third placed Adrian Lazzaro who held a comfortable margin on Marshall in the championship points standing.

With the triple points weighting for Race 3 (the final race of the series) the championship was still alive with Marshall needing to finish 7 places ahead of Lazzaro to secure the title. With Marshall off P2 and Lazzaro off P3 the lights went out and Lazzaro had a disastrous start and was immediately passed by a number of cars before he got his Spectrum up to speed. Andrews and Marshall opened up an early gap which saw Lazzaro chasing through the midfield and as he started to make up the places he needed to secure the championship contact was made with another car that saw Lazzaro off the track and caught in a sand trap. Marshall went on to take second from team mate Andrews which was enough to take the win in the CAMS championship.

In an "In Pit Lane" interview after the race, Marshall commented that he was "extremely happy to win both Championships and I am very grateful for the help provided by my engineer Sean Scott, he did a fantastic job tuning the chassis and being my driver coach". Marshall also thanked his team mate Scott  Andrews for his help through the season. "Scott has been great and I have learnt a lot from him this year" he commented.

"I am looking forward to 2012 now as I will be competing in the Australian Formula 3 championship which will be an enormous challenge for me and Dad, and Tim Macrow who will be engineering the car for us" Lockie said.

Marshall joins the ranks of notable drivers like Will Davison and Jamie Whincup who have won the Victorian Formula Ford 1600 Championship in their first year of racing.

F3 newcomer to bring ace support in 2012

 

17-year-old Victorian Formula Ford pilot Lachlan Marshall will enter the F3 Australian Drivers Championship in 2012 and he’s brought in some gun support to help his maiden ‘wings and slicks’ campaign.

Marshall, a year 11 student at Braemar College, is the first young driver to commit to the 2012 Forpark Australia F3 Scholarship that awards a young driver a subsidy towards an outright drive the following season.

Marshall has bought the F304 Dallara-Renault driven by Tim Macrow to victories at Sandown last year, and has brought the 2007 F3 champion on board to engineer and act as a driver coach in his campaign next year.

The pair officially confirmed their plans at the weekends’ round of the F3 Australian Drivers Championship at Sandown and discussed plans for next year.

Lockie currently leads the Formula Ford 1600 championship in Victoria and is looking to wrap up the title later this year. Naturally, he is excited to be stepping his career forward next season.

“I have worked with Tim before and he’s a great engineer and driver coach – he’ll really help my transition to Formula 3,” Marshall said.

“He knows the cars inside and out as well as all of the interstate tracks, so I’m lucky to have him as my mentor in 2012.

“My new car is great and has had a lot of success so I know it’s capable of being competitive and I can’t wait to get behind the wheel for the first time.

“I would like to thank my sponsors for their support this season and their continued support into the future,” he added. “My family and the crew from project racing have been huge supports to get me to the position that I am now in.”

Marshall said the Forpark Australia Scholarship was naturally a factor in him joining Formula 3 for next season.

“It’s a fantastic thing to have and if I can win it would be a massive boost to my career,” he said.

“The prize is great and the money would go a long way to making my next year easier but everything else that goes with it, like the media training, for example, make it really worthwhile.

“Like almost every young driver I would love to go to Europe and race over there, but I am also keen to race in Australia. But I know racing Formula 3 here will be a big help to me in achieving my goals.”

Macrow – currently the senior engineer at Borland Racing’s Spectrum Formula Ford team - said he was looking forward to working with Marshall next season.

“It’s exciting to see new drivers coming into the category and I’m looking forward to be working with Lachlan in 2012. With his results in Formula Ford 1600 this year I expect his transition to Formula 3 will be smooth and competitive.

“He’s got a great approach to his driving and I expect him to be competing for the Forpark Australia National Class from the very first round.”

Lockie and his father, John, will take delivery of the car soon with the young driver set to begin testing later this season ahead of his 2012 F3 title debut.

The next round of the 2011 F3 Australian Drivers Championship will be held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit on November 4-6, with the Shannons Nationals.