Sellars sends statement 

Harrison Sellars put a frustrating couple of rounds behind him by sweeping a thrilling Formula Fords round in Sandown.

Having gone from being near the top to dropping out of championship contention, Sellars switched his attention to winning races and it paid off in Victoria.

The Tasmanian Altatek Racing driver collected a maximum haul of 61 points in Sandown by taking pole and all three races wins, while Edison Beswick was second and vitally increased his series lead over Kobi Williams.

But he had to earn them however, with his biggest margin of victory a meagre four tenths across the whole weekend.

“It has been a long time coming,” a relieved Sellars told AUTO ACTION.

“We had a great start to the year and then unfortunately due to circumstances out of my control I wasn’t able to stay in the championship hunt.

“So it is really nice to finally put a weekend together, especially with a clean sweep.

“It was a great weekend of close racing. It was not like I cleared out in front, I had to work really hard, so it was really enjoyable.”

In the opening race drivers had to contend with a permanent yellow between turns 2 and 4 due to a sandy surface.

But that did not stop the young drivers from producing some special racing with the lead changing almost every lap.

A nine car pack was fighting for the lead by Lap 8, but the pressure became too much for some.

Williams and Jack Bussey clashed and this saw championship contender Williams retire with suspension damage in an incident that could decide the title.

Beswick took the white flag as the leader, but could not stop Sellars from snatching it in the run down to Dandenong Road.

In Race 2 Sellars, Beswick and Cody Maynes-Rutty had another fierce fight for victory.

Maynes-Rutty critically slipped from first to third on Lap 8, which allowed Sellars to secure back to back glories as the race ended under Safety Car conditions due to Kyle Cotter being stuck in the Turn 9 sand.

The finale started dramatically with Bussey spinning at Turn 1 but the field managed to avoid him.

Whilst Sellars again controlled the early stages, Beswick forced his way past at Turn 6 before Lachlan Evennett had to stop with suspension damage after getting airborne in the grass.

When racing resumed Beswick, Sellars and Maynes-Rutty traded the lead lap after lap in an epic slipstream battle.

Sellars ended up crossing the line in front in each of the last four laps, but only just with Maynes-Rutty just a tenth behind.

Sellars said a key to success was managing the tow up the straights at Sandown.

“For us the tow was huge all weekend, especially up the back straight,” he said.

“You really had to be smart with where you positioned the car.

“I was probably the worst car coming out of turn 4 which actually helped because the others were too close to get the full tow.

“The last race was strange because I was leading rather than being second coming onto the last lap so I made sure my run onto the back straight was as good as possible and held on by the skin of my teeth.”

After some tough times at Morgan Park and Symmons Plains, Sellars said the championship is now out of the window and he is just chasing wins – a mindset that has worked well so far.

“I am just caring about race wins now,” he said.

“I couldn’t care less about points anymore and I am just taking each race as it comes.”

The final round of the 2024 Formula Ford Australia season is at Phillip Island on October 4-6. 

image: Rebecca Hind/Revved Photography

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