AUSTRALIAN FORMULA FORD, 2005

PRESS RELEASE: AUG 15, 2005

O’BRIEN’S CONSECUTIVE ROUND WINS

After clean-sweeping the previous round at Queensland Raceway, Shannon O’Brien continued on his winning way, with a second and two firsts at Round 6 of the 2005 Ford Racing Australian Formula Ford championship at Oran Park Raceway.
O’Brien, driving the O’Brien Motorsport Van Diemen RF03, didn’t have it all his own way. Local driver Brad Lowe (Marshall Tyres Van Diemen RF95) secured his first ever national pole and claimed the race one win and was in the battle for the number one spot in race two and race three to finish second overall for the round.
Championship leader Daniel Elliott (Fastlane Racing/VIP Petfoods Van Diemen RF05) added another 40 points to his championship tally to extend his lead in the title chase to 78 points over his nearest rival.
Elliott shared the third spot overall with young New South Wales driver Paul Laskazeski (CAMS Rising Star Spectrum 010b). The 17-year-old claimed two thirds and a fourth ahead of a number of the more fancied national championship regular contenders.
RACE 1, Saturday, 4.40 pm, 12 Laps: IT’S LOWE FROM ‘GO’ TO ‘WHOA’
Local driver Brad Lowe, from pole position, led the field around the Oran Park circuit from the green light to the chequered flag. Lowe’s Van Diemen crossed the finish line just under a second ahead of round five overall winner Shannon O’Brien.
Lowe’s lead had been out to over a second until Luke Wood (Sime Tyres Van Diemen RF93) ran off the track at turn one on lap six. Two laps run under safety car conditions allowed the field to bunch up but when the race restarted Lowe was able to hold on to the lead to secure his first national race win.
Jason Liefting (Project Motor Sports Spectrum 010b) had been in second place for the first 10 laps before being overtaken by O’Brien on lap 11. Liefting then had a battle on his hands to defend third but was unable to prevent Paul Laskazeski (CAMS Rising Star Spectrum 010b) overtaking him on the last lap to snatch the third place points.
On lap two of the 12-lap race O’Brien set a new Oran Park Formula Ford lap record of 1:12.5589.
RACE 2, Sunday, 11.00am, 12 Laps: O’BRIEN’S HARD FOUGHT WIN
In warm, sunny conditions and in front of a big crowd Brad Lowe, Shannon O’Brien and Jason Liefting were three wide going into turn one for the first time. O’Brien prevailed and led under the bridge, with Liefting in second and Lowe in third. Race one winner Paul Laskazeski was in fifth place as the cars crossed the finish line to start lap two. Liefting received a ‘drive-through’ penalty for a jumped start which effectively saw him out of the race for a top three finish.
At the front of the pack O’Brien was maintaining his lead but was under constant pressure from an attacking Lowe who was in turn being pursued by Daniel Elliott. The leading pack of five cars, which included Shane Price who had moved up from tenth place on the grid, had pulled out from the rest of the field and further back on the track drivers were continually passing and being passed, as positions changed on every lap.
The leading trio continued to the battle for placings but O’Brien, despite Lowe’s best slip-streaming efforts, was able to maintain his lines and take the chequered flag two seconds ahead and the duelling duo behind him. Lowe finally succumbed to the pressure from Elliott on the last lap; the championship leader took advantage of a mistake by Lowe and was able to slot into second, adding another valuable 16 points to his championship tally.
RACE 3, Sunday, 4.30pm, 12 Laps: O’BRIEN WRAPS UP THE ROUND
Shannon O’Brien took his second race victory for the weekend, leading from the green light, but once again had a battle on his hands to fend off the hard charging trio of Daniel Elliott, Paul Laskazeski and Brad Lowe who pushed the Queenslander for the duration of the race.
The leading quartet formed a freight train and started to pull away from the rest of the field but when James Bergmuller spun the safety car came out for two laps and the field bunched up. With the departure of the safety car the field returned to race conditions and Grant Doulman and Ben Guest were able to tag onto the tail of the leading quartet, forming a six-car group with a gap back to the remainder of the field.
When the chequered flag dropped Laskazeski crossed the line behind O’Brien and ahead of Elliott but stewards later determined that Laskazeski had passed Elliott under the yellow flag. The amended results saw Elliott elevated to second place and Laskazeski third.