Ford Rules Island Action
| press release | 18 August 2015 |
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It was a great weekend for Williams Racing at the 2015 Non-Gearbox Nationals/Gearbox State Titles at Phillip Island, with the team taking home some great results and a new lap record to boot after running five karts for the first time ever at a race meeting.
Above: Williams Racing team drivers with their trophies from the weekend
With the Australian number 1 plates on offer at this event the stakes were high for the non-gearbox guys. In the 125cc Rotax Lights class Travis Jones qualified an impressive 5th after having been 3rd in a damp morning practice session. He impressed through the four races to finish 8th overall after a few setbacks couldn’t allow him to improve on the good pace he showed at the start of the weekend. A clear advantage was seen with the newer, longer wheelbase karts dominating proceedings but Travis battled on and diced consistently in a pack of 10-12 karts dicing over the bottom step of the podium.
The 125cc Rotax Heavy class was somewhat bittersweet as driver Jarrod Sanfillipo narrowly missed out on taking out the national championship by nine points. You could throw a blanket over the top five karts in each heat with all drivers capable of winning. Slipstreaming and track position being the key with no one wanting to lead out of MG corner on the last lap. Jarrod drove brilliantly all weekend, winning the third heat and took home second place overall in only his second superkart meeting in the class.
Above: Jarrod Sanfillipo and Travis Jones
Moving on to the 250cc National class, who were contesting for a State Championship, it was a clean sweep of the podium by Williams Racing with Jordan Ford taking home the spoils. Ford went largely unchallenged in his run over the weekend and smashing the current lap record consistently. His new benchmark time of 1.35.9906 finally set at 1.49 seconds under the previous best for the class. Following him was Dale Williams who, apart from an off in the second race, was pleased with the result and the data gained for the Nationals next month. A gearbox problem in qualifying led to an engine swap but he bounced back to finish all races and gain some valuable miles on his new Anderson chassis.
Above: The team's three 250 National drivers (L to R) Tyler Williams, Jordan Ford and Dale Williams
Rounding off the podium was Tyler Williams, rueing the fact that carburation problems hampered his overall pace. Preventing him from getting the most out of the kart but still happy with the result and experience gained from the weekend.
The team now look forward to getting back to Phillip Island next month for the final round of the Australian Superkart Championship on September 19/20 where Jordie and Dale currently sit first and third in the Championship standings.
Williams Racing would like to thank Burbank Group, Peter Ford Catering, Slipstream Signs, Dunlop Kartsport, Anderson Karts, Yamaha, Sunbury Collision Centre, JMTF, R&J Batteries, and PowerFlow for their continued support of the team.
