Damon Leitch Resumes MTA Formula Ford Campaign

Leitch Resumes Campaign

Damon Leitch of Invercargill faces another big challenge in the 2007/2008 MTA Formula Ford Championship this weekend when he makes his first appearance at the Manfeild Autocourse circuit in Feilding near Palmerston North.

Leitch has made a great start to his campaign in Class 2 of the championship for pre-1993 cars, winning two of the three races at the second round after making a clean sweep at the opening round at Pukekohe. The 14-year-old Southlander is also finishing ahead of many of the more modern Class 1 cars each time he takes to the track. Since the last round of the series in November Leitch has tested his Van Diemen RF92 at his home circuit Teretonga, reporting that the handling of the car is the best it has ever been.

Damon's only experience of the 3.03 kilometre Manfeild layout is a reconnaissance drive around it in a rental car, a far cry from racing at speed in the cut and thrust of Formula Ford. However from his first sighting of the track Leitch describes it as "pretty cool." One thing the Invercargill student has proved already this season is that he can quickly adapt to new circuits.

As is usual Leitch will line up for three races over the course of the weekend in what constitutes Round 3 of the 2007/2008 series. Before they begin the young Southlander and the rest of the Formula Ford field will contest a twenty minute qualifying session on Saturday morning to determine grid positions for the first of those races. The first race over 10 laps will be held later that afternoon. On Sunday Damon's first outing will take place at 10.20am with the third race of the round over 15 laps scheduled for around 2.00pm. The event will be a big occasion as it is one of the support races for the 2008 New Zealand Grand Prix.

After this round the team will quickly move onto Taupo where the category is a support class at the A1GP World Cup Of Motorsport the following weekend. Once again Leitch will be exploring new territory at a track that he has only been to "for a look" previously. With the huge programme at the A1GP meeting he will only receive two practice sessions to become familiar with the circuit. However Leitch says driving at the same meeting as the A1GP cars is a "buzz".

Damon's campaign in the 2007/2008 MTA Formula Ford Championship is supported by Toll Tranz Link, Ray White Real Estate, Caltex Invercargill Oil Shop, Advantage Advertising, Kingsford-Smith Motor Painting Ltd, PPG, E H Ball ITM Building Supplies, Macaulay Ford, H W Richardson Group Ltd, Collingwood Foodcentre, BNT, Discount Tyres & Wheel Alignments and Leitch Motorsport.

CALENDAR 2007/2008 MTA FORMULA FORD CHAMPIONSHIP

Round 1 - 2-4 November 2007 Pukekohe Park Raceway, Auckland
Round 2 - 23-25 November 2007 Powerbuilt Tools International Raceway, Ruapuna, Christchurch
Round 3 - 11-13 January 2008 Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding
Round 4 - 18-20 January 2008 Taupo Motorsport Centre, Taupo
Round 5 - 15-17 February 2008 Manfeild Autocourse, Feilding
Round 6 - 29 February-2 March 2008 Timaru International Motor Raceway, Timaru
Round 7 - 7-9 March 2008 Teretonga Park, Invercargill

ENDS

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