Eventful 2nd at Ipswich

Matthew Brabham had his second National round win slip from his fingers with a last lap tangle with his teammate Nick Foster. Brabs went into the last lap in second place and if he had finished there would have taken the overall win at the Queensland Raceway. Foster passed Brabs in turn three, and in attempting to regain 2nd place into turn four Brabs clipped Fosters car and spun down to 7th.

The week end started brightly for the third generation driver, a good practice on Friday had Matthew confident of challenging for pole in qualifying. This proved to be the case, and in a frantic qualifying session Matthew finished up 3rd but only 0.052 off the pole time.

Race 1 had Brabs fighting back from a average start to close on the leader heading into the last lap, and despite a look down the outside going into turn three Brabs had to settle for 2nd place and the fastest lap.

Race 2 on Sunday morning was wet and with a front row start Matthew was hoping for a repeat of his win at Winton in the rain. Again the usual great starts were not happening this week end and Matthew had to settle for 2nd again. However with Race 1 winner Nick Foster spinning out Matthew was looking good for his second round win in as many starts going into the last race.

A couple of small mistakes turned race 3 into a dogfight for Brabs, unfortunately even though the round win was there for the taking a strong second place finish ended up being the overall result.

“I am happy to finish 2nd, but very disappointed I didn’t win.” A frustrated Matthew said after the race. “The car was good as the team did their usual great job, so if I had not made a couple of small mistakes over the week end I should have won the round. I know I have a lot to learn and there will be days like this, but it does not make it any easier to accept. Anyway I will take a close look at this week end and apply what I learnt to the next race at Phillip Island.”

Matthew’s next race is round six of the National Formula Ford Championship to be held at the Phillip Island Grand Prix circuit on Sept 16th – 18th.