Lockie Marshall - The Fastest Schoolboy in Australia

Victorian VCE student Lockie Marshall is surely Australia's fastest schoolboy as he competed in the latest round of the Australian Formula 3 Championship recently at Eastern Creek Raceway in Sydney.    As a relative newcomer to Formula 3,  the fastest racing category in Australia, Lockie's first challenge was learning the Eastern Creek circuit layout in the two 30 minute practice sessions held on Friday.   

Things got serious in Saturday morning's Qualifying session with Lockie posting the third quickest time in the Forpark National class.  Whilst  the top three were split by only fractions of a second, they were all approximately 7 seconds inside the V8 Supercar lap record held by Mark Skaife.

  

Starting off the second row of the National class grid,  Race 1 was looking promising although a spin on lap 4 when challenging for the lead saw Lockie drop back to last position, an inevitable result  following such an error.   The only consolation being his race pace which saw him set the fastest lap in the race in his class.

Race 2 on Sunday morning was a challenging race with Lockie working his way through the National class field and eventually taking the chequered flag after a closely  fought 10 lap race.   Unfortunately Lockie was penalised 30 seconds for making contact with another competitor and was relegated to last place.  Again the fastest race lap was the silver lining to an otherwise dark cloud.

As Race 3  the feature race approached, Lockie re-focussed and despite starting from near the back of the grid he made a textbook start with very little wheel-spin to be in 2nd place going into turn 1.   As the 15 lap race wore on Lockie swapped positions with leader Hayden Cooper although by the final lap, Cooper was in front and took the win with Lockie coming 2nd in the national class.    

In a post race interview Lockie said " It's been a challenging weekend but I've learned a lot and I'm very happy to be on the podium".  Lockie went on to say " I'm looking forward to racing at Queensland Raceway next month.  It's Hayden and Ben's home track so they will be quick and I'm going to have to give it everything I've got".   

Lockie would like to thank his sponsors Lord Chemicals, Hare & Forbes Machinery House, Ontime Distribution, Forensic Consulting,  A1 Signs,  Elf Racefuels,  Connexus,  Campbellfield Truck Services,  Kyneton Autopro, Kyneton Toyota,  Bridgestone Kyneton, Body Corp Highpoint Accident Repair Centre, Point Precision Engineering, Race Recall and Unique Marine for their support through the year.   

Lockie would also like to say a big thankyou to Sydney motorsport identity  Rudolf Masi  for his help in the pits and valuable advice throughout the weekend.