Bad Luck follows Brabs to Townsville

Matthew Brabham’s run of bad luck continued today at Round 5 of the Genuine Ford Parts Formula Ford Championship held at the Townsville street circuit in Northern Queensland.

Matthew endured a torrid qualifying session at 8:30 in the morning which made the track really slippery and a red flag thrown in as well all added up to a disappointing 16^th grid position for the first race. After being comfortably 8^th fastest the previous day in practise Matthew had trouble with the unexpectedly slippery conditions and then was caught out in traffic after the red flag when most of the fast times were recorded.

Race 1 was all about staying out of trouble and moving up the field, which is what Matthew achieved with a 13^th place finish. Matthew found out that on a street circuit it is very difficult to move forward through the pack in a 11 lap race.

Race 2 Mathew continued his march towards the front by coming home in 10^th position and gaining some championship points, setting himself up for a final push into the top ten in race 3.

Unfortunately Race 3 ended in a DNF as an electrical gremlin after a few laps of intermittently cutting out eventually shut the engine down and Matthew costed silently into retirement.

“It was a disappointing end to the weekend as my car felt pretty good in the last race but just as I was in position to make a run at the cars in front the engine started to cut out and then it stopped all together. We have had a tough couple of races lately so hopefully we can turn that around at the next race and get back to the front of the field.”

Matthew’s next National race is at Surfers Paradise on Oct 24^th.