Tom Sargent has claimed his first car race victory, taking out the final race of the weekend in Round 4 of the NSW Formula Ford Championship at Wakefield Park after some close battles over the course of the event.
Sargent qualified second, narrowly missing out on pole position to national series competitor Nathan Herne.
The Young driver had to deal with a throttle cable issue in Race 1 but still finished second, and he led early in Race 2 before being overtaken by Herne.
In Race 3, Sargent was overtaken by several rivals, running as low as fourth at one stage, but he capitalised on his rivals’ dicing to overtake all three of them, leading the last five laps and taking the chequered flag in first place.
The Young driver said winning his first race is a tremendous reward for all his supporters.
“It’s been an amazing couple of weeks – it started on a high with the second-place finish at the Tailem Bend Supercars event, and now to get my first race win in cars is an amazing feeling,” Sargent said.
“To race in Formula Ford this year has been a massive effort from my family, my CHE Racing Team and my sponsors – a huge thanks to them for making this result possible.
“I had some good battles with Nathan Herne in the first two races – I actually beat him off the line but he was able to overtake me on the first lap, which shows I still need to work on cold tyre pace.
“The third race was insane – we were all battling hard for position and fourth was the lowest position I had run in all weekend! But I kept focusing on driving the car accurately, and I was able to catch up to the cars ahead and overtake them.
“My team-mate Lachlan Mineeff finished second, so it was a fantastic result for Colin and Cameron Hill and the CHE Racing Team.”
Sargent will next be on track for Round 6 of the Australian Formula Ford Championship at Phillip Island, 29-30 September.
Results Summary
Qualifying: 2nd
Race 1: 2nd
Race 2: 2nd
Race 3: 1st
Overall: 1st
