Young Karter Impresses Smith in Formula Ford Debut

Ken Smith Motorsport Media Release

For immediate release.

Young Karter Impresses Smith in Formula Ford Debut

Young Christchurch karter Tom Alexander made a promising car racing debut at Hampton Downs Raceway last weekend, driving a Ken Smith Motorsport Stealth Formula Ford at the Historic Racing Club’s annual Legends of Speed meeting.

Racing in the Super Historic class, Alexander, 16, impressed with a faultless performance against much quicker cars. He was rewarded with a test in the car earlier in the year after working for KSM’s Formula 5000 campaign over the summer, and impressed team owner Ken Smith enough to run the youngster in addition to his own Dallara F3 car for the weekend.

After posting some very good times in testing on Friday, much of the track’s grip was washed away by a torrential downpour on Friday night. Despite this, Alexander consistently improved his lap times over the weekend as well as displaying a lot of confidence and maturity in traffic in the 20-strong field, mixing it with cars which should have been much faster.

“Tom did a great job considering it was his first ever car race, he’s got a lot of talent and I think he shows great promise. He shows the same sort of potential that I saw in Scott Dixon and Brendon Hartley when they were first starting out” said Smith after the event. He is hopeful that backing can be found for Alexander to contest some winter series events in preparation for a full NZ Formula Ford Championship campaign next season.

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