Lachlan Mineeff has wrapped up fifth place in the 2019 Australian Formula Ford Championship by finishing sixth overall in the final round of the season at Phillip Island on the weekend.
Despite not testing prior to the event, and only completing eight laps during a weather-affected day of practice on Friday, Mineeff qualified sixth.
“In qualifying, we were caught in some traffic and didn’t quite maximise the car’s performance, but we still ended up with a reasonable grid position,” Mineeff said.
Mineeff finished seventh in Race 1, a result he repeated in a wet Race 2.
“In Race 1, the tyres took a while to reach their peak performance, and I lost a position early in the race,” he said.
“In Race 2, considering I had never driven at Phillip Island in the wet before, I was happy with my pace; the main focus was staying out of trouble and avoiding damage.
Some strong race-craft enabled Mineeff to improve to fourth in Race 3, the 16-year-old making up multiple positions in the closing laps and also gaining some places when a few other drivers were penalised for overtaking under yellow-flag conditions.
“Once again, the car took a while to come on and I lost some places at the start, but it was really fast towards the end and I was able to overtake people, and also capitalised on a few penalties,” Mineeff said.
Mineeff secured a top-five finish in the Australian Formula Ford Championship for the second year in a row.
“While our championship finishing position is the same as 2018, there’s no doubt we took a big step forward this season,” Mineeff said.
“Our pace was a lot more competitive, as we demonstrated by winning two rounds, and we only finished seven points behind third place.”
Mineeff is especially proud of his exemplary finishing record over the last two seasons.
“Over the last two years of national Formula Ford, I’ve finished all 42 races – no other driver in the field can say they’ve done that,” Mineeff said.
“It shows our CHE Racing Team have prepared an extremely reliable car, and we’ve been able to avoid on-track incidents.”
With Mineeff’s second full season in national Formula Ford complete, the Oxley College student is ready for new challenges, and will spend the remainder of 2019 putting together commercial arrangements for the 2020 season. More details will be revealed in the coming months, and interested commercial partners are encouraged to contact Lachlan via his website and social media channels.
Round Results Summary
Qualifying: 6th
Race 1: 7th
Race 2: 7th
Race 3: 4th
Overall: 6th
Top 10 Points – Final
- Angelo Mouzouris – 295
- Zac Soutar – 277
- Tom Sargent – 235
- Callum Hedge – 230
- Lachlan Mineeff – 228
- Cody Burcher – 217
- Jay Hanson – 209
- Courtney Prince – 175
- Cody Donald – 121
- Harrison Goodman – 110
