Brendon Leitch Heads For Championship Showdown

MEDIA RELEASE
6 MARCH 2013

Brendon Leitch Heads For Championship Showdown

Championship leader Brendon Leitch of Invercargill heads to the Taupo Motorsport Park for the final round of the 2013 New Zealand Formula Ford Championship this weekend.

Leitch leads the title race by three points and faces a showdown this weekend with Christchurch driver James Munro to decide the title.

The 17-year-old Southlander shared the championship lead with another Cantabrian, Michael Collins, after the first round at Teretonga in January and has held it on his own ever since. However problems at the last two rounds have allowed Munro to close in and everything is on the line this weekend. After the penultimate round at Manfeild last month the EH Ball / ITM Stealth of Leitch was sent back to Invercargill for testing to try and eliminate the issues that surfaced at both Hampton Downs and Manfeild. That testing has appeared to find the source of some of the problems. "It is all go," said Leitch as he prepared to travel north early this week. "We have made a few changes both visually and internally and we got some positive feedback from testing at Teretonga. We found a few things to account for our lack of power and with the aerodynamics. I'm stoked! Hopefully we can return to the form we showed at Teretonga and Timaru. The key is to qualify well and finish each race well. I'm relaxed and confident with the car and we will have our full team at Taupo this weekend."

Leitch and the EH Ball / ITM Stealth will face qualifying on Saturday morning at the 3.5 kilometre Taupo circuit with the first of the final three races over 10 laps later that afternoon. On Sunday the final two races will be held and at the conclusion of the final race the 2013 New Zealand Formula Ford Champion will be crowned.

Points after 4 rounds - Leitch - 778; Munro - 775; Collins - 696:

Photograph - Invercargill driver Brendon Leitch at speed in the EH Ball / ITM Stealth during Round 4 of the New Zealand Formula Ford Championship at Manfeild Park last month - please credit Euan Cameron

CALENDAR -- 2013 NZ FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP
Round 1: 12-13 January 2013 - Teretonga Park, Invercargill
Round 2: 19-20 January 2013 - Timaru International Motor Raceway, Levels, Timaru
Round 3: 2-3 February 2013 - Hampton Downs, Waikato
Round 4: 9-10 February 2013 - Manfeild Park, Feilding
Round 5: 9-10 March 2013 - Taupo Motorsport Park, Taupo

ENDS

© Scoop Media