MANFEILD WINTER SERIES 2008 – THE STORY SO FAR.

With two rounds of the 2008 Manfeild Winter Series now in the bag, one thing is for certain. It is going to be very close.

With 6 races having been completed, three different winners have each won two, leaving no single driver with anything of a safety margin as far as points go.

Round 1

Matthew Stubbs currently leads after round 2 of the Manfeild winter series. Qualifying Ryan Hellier was in great form and was definitely one of the quickest cars on track – having snatched pole by a small margin over newcomer Nick Cassidy. Hellier’s time of 1:24.013 was just 27 thousandths faster than the second placed Sabre of Cassidy.

Matthew Stubbs was quick as usual and both Matt Gibson and Bradley McDonald also sat close behind. Stubbs, Gibson and McDonald were separated by .3 of a second.

Race 1 Despite leading 3 of the six laps, Hellier was not able to capitalise on his pace and was eventually beaten to the line by Stubbs, who had driven a seemingly relaxed race. Cassidy came home third in his first ever Formula First race and had actually led across the line on lap four – a brilliant effort by the former karter.

Gibson and McDonald finished fourth and fifth, with Ben Poulsen coming home in sixth.

Nick Cassidy (left) defends turn 1 from Stubbs, Hellier (behind) and Gibson. Race 2 Nick Cassidy took a sensational win in the second race, heading home Hellier and Stubbs by a small margin. This had been another classic Manfeild Formula First battle with the three leaders constantly swapping positions corner-to-corner.

McDonald came home fourth ahead of rookie Bramwell King, who was followed by rookie Jamie Gaskin.

Gibson could not back up his earlier performance and DNF’ed with a plug lead problem.

Race 3 Gibson made amends for his poor showing in race two when he took the final race of the day from Stubbs and Hellier. Nick Cassidy was fourth, followed by McDonald and King.

Again, Hellier had played a major role in the race but was unable to clinch the deal when it came to the last lap. Gibson, by contrast, had positioned himself well and took the win reasonably untroubled – despite the closeness of the finish.

Points after round 1 Matthew Stubbs 202 Ryan Hellier 194 Nick Cassidy 189 Bradley McDonald 152 Jamie Gaskin 132 Bramwell King 130 Matt Gibson 129 Andrew Vincent 114 Kurt Mildenhall 108 Zak Murray 96 Ben Polson 81

Round 2 Qualifying Nick Cassidy topped the time sheets in only his second qualifying ever with a time of 1:24.64. Times were slightly slower than round 1 due to air density differences (it was slightly warmer at round 2) and this was reflected throughout the field.

Ryan Hellier seemed strong again with a solid qualifying performance to slot into second behind Cassidy, although the margin to Cassidy, .3 seconds, was more than Hellier had hoped for.

Stubbs, Gibson, King and McDonald rounded out the top six.

Ryan Hellier (seen here in round 1) did not have his round 1 speed at round 2. Race 1 Nick Cassidy added to his excellent round 1 results by taking the first race from Stubbs by the small margin of .1 of a second. Stubbs had traded the lead constantly with Cassidy but could not get the job done on the final lap when it counted.

Hellier’s early speed seemed to leave him during this race and he finished almost three seconds behind the leading duo - in what was a lonely race for him.

A further 7 seconds back, McDonald crossed the line with a huge margin back to Kurt Mildenhall. Rookie Mildenhall was close to ten seconds behind McDonald at the chequered and was a further five seconds ahead of Bramwell King, who crossed the line to take sixth.

A promising start for Gibson ended early on when his car dropped to three cylinders after the same spark plug lead problem that plagued him at round 1 resurfaced.

Bradley McDonald has been consitent throughout the first two rounds, and sits in fourth position overall. Race 2 Race 2 was once again a classic battle between Stubbs and Cassidy. This time Stubbs took the victory after he set Cassidy up over the final two laps. The margin of victory was the smallest yet, with a mere 5 hundredths of a second separating the two Sabre team mates at the line.

Matt Gibson was back up and running and had brought his car home in third - setting the fastest lap of the race on the way.

McDonald came home fourth ahead of Hellier – whose car was still not performing to it’s round one levels.

Kurt Mildenhall took sixth place.

Race 3 Matt Gibson took race three after defending much of the way from Cassidy and Stubbs. The three leaders had pulled a quick gap early on, back to McDonald and were never troubled in what became another classic slipstreaming battle.

The gap back to McDonald at the line was five seconds. By contrast, McDonald was only just ahead of Hellier who had been battling a misfire all weekend.

Sixth place went to Bramwell King.

Points after round 2 Matthew Stubbs 404 Nick Cassidy 398 Ryan Hellier 352 Bradley McDonald 314 Matt Gibson 300 Bramwell King 259 Jamie Gaskin 255 Kurt Mildenhall 241 Zak Murray 210 Andrew Vincent 114 Ben Polson 81