MICHAEL SHEPHERD CLAIMS 2006 NZ FORMULA FIRST TITLE

At the Dateline Imports Formula First round 7 of the 2006 NZ championship, held at Pukekohe over the weekend of March 4/5, Michael Shepherd used his maturity and experience to seal the championship with a round to spare*.

While the forecast predicted deteriorating weather, it never manifested itself and allowed a banquet of extremely close racing on track, which has come to be expected from Formula First this season.

Of all the North Island tracks, Pukekohe offers the greatest opportunity to use slip-streaming to advantage, and this is just what Shepherd did in qualifying to secure pole position. Local Ian Foster scored 2nd on the grid while Caine Lobb continued his run of strong qualifying form to put his Hydraulink Sabre into 3rd. Previous championship winner Leo Francis made a welcome return and put his car into 4th spot, while championship contender Simon Hardy from Tauranga had to be content with 5th. The biggest standout in qualifying had to be Janet Pudney in 7th, and only 0.5 seconds off Shepherds pole-setting time, certainly her strongest ever result and just-reward for a great effort.

A great looking field of 18 cars came under starters orders for Race 1, and maybe the pressure was starting to show on Shepherd when he uncharacteristically spun the back tyres at the race-start. Ian Foster assumed the lead into Turn 1 as the pack jockeyed for position.

By mid-race the cars had split into 2 groups, at the front 10 cars continually drafting and swapping positions, the next group led by Janet Pudney doing her utmost to stave off repeated attacks.

In the run down the hill to start Lap 5, the front runners spread wide into Turn 1 when the cars of John Young and Scott Fountain tangle up and run wide into the grass. Both were able to rejoin, although they could only finish right at the back.

Starting the final lap, Caine Lobb had sprung a 5 car-length gap on the front runners. But perhaps this was engineered because in the run down the back straight his lead was well and truly swallowed up as the drafting kicked in. Shepherd lead out of the hairpin but Simon Hardy played his cards just right and snuck up the inside to win narrowly from Shepherd and Lobb, this threesome finishing side by side in a photo finish at the line.

Just meters past the finish line, race-winner Hardy experienced an engine failure which required a new cylinder head and associated componentry to repair it in time for Sundays races.

Scott Fountain had put in a stunning lap during Race 1 to claim pole position for Race 2. But consternation reigned when Fountain pulled into the pits during the formation lap, leaving the No.1 spot vacant and sacrificing his warm-up lap to start in Pitlane.

Once again Ian Foster made the best start to lead Shepherd around Turn 1 for the first time. On Lap 2 Robin Bennett made a dramatic exit at Turn 1 when he lost the R/Front wheel off his car. This left the yellow flag out at Turn 1 which was to have an impact on how the race developed as it prevented overtaking there.

Halfway through the race and a battle-royale within the leading group of 10 cars was entertaining the crowd, especially the braking battles into the hairpin which were regularly 3-wide.

Scott Fountain made up very good ground, picking off cars up to 13th position but without the aid of a slipstream was never going to bother the leaders.

Into the last lap Cliff Field had grafted has way into the lead with a small gap to the chasers. Desperate for championship points to make up for a DNF at the previous round, Field clung to the lead at the hairpin with some heroic late braking, but as the saying goes “you don’t want to be leading the last lap”. Caine Lobb made a textbook job of positioning himself line-astern of Field, and pulled out on the run to the line to take the win like taking candy from a baby. Field 2nd from Shepherd by just 0.006 seconds with Simon Hardy 4th.

Shepherd knew that by finishing ahead of Hardy in the last race, the championship title would be his. And lining up on the dummy-grid, Shepherd on the front row could see Hardy all the way back in 8th position with all the hard work ahead of him.

From the race start, Hardy’s work was made easier when early on an incident at the hairpin involving Caine Lobb and John Young saw a big reshuffle at the front. So at Lap 3 it was the 2 title contenders, Shepherd and Hardy, in 1st and 2nd respectively.

Tagged on to these 2 were all the usual suspects, Cliff Field, Ian Foster, Scott Fountain, Andrew Waite, Caine Lobb, and all had reasons of their own to be pushing for a race win.

Late in the race, heading into the braking area for the hairpin, Cliff Field experienced every drivers worst nightmare when his brake pedal went straight to the floor. Impact into the back of Andrew Waite was heavy and Field can consider himself very lucky not to be injured after the L/Front wheel was sheared clean off and slammed into the bodywork just forward of the windshield.

This rearranged the lead bunch once again, and it was Michael Shepherd from Palmerston North, in his Oreti Software sponsored Challenge car that had nothing in front of him but fresh air in the run to the finish. He had built himself just enough of a gap to keep the challengers at bay, and tied-up the championship in the best possible way with a great win by 0.182 seconds from Hardy, very comfortable by Formula First standards.

Ian Foster was right there for 3rd from Scott Fountain and Leo Francis. Janet Pudney deserves an honourable mention for her highest ever finish of 6th, holding out the much more experienced Dom Kalasih to the finish.

As the focus shifts to the fight for 2nd, all eyes will be on Formula First for their final meeting this season at Manfield in 3 weeks time, March 25/26. Simon Hardy has a buffer but with the unpredictability you cannot discount Cliff Field, Andrew Waite and Caine Lobb.

*Provisional Result Only - subject to technical checks to be carried out at the end of the season.