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.