Ribarits claims pole at The Bend

Hamish Ribarits has grabbed his second pole position of the season with a 1.59.027 lap to top the timesheets on day one of the fifth round of the 2018 Australian Formula Ford Championship at the OTR Supersprint. The Sonic Motor Racing Services driver was two-hundredths of a second quicker than team-mate Hunter McElrea, who currently holds a 28-point gap over Ribarits in the championship fight. Spectrum driver Cody Donald was only five-tenths behind the Sonic duo, in third position. This was Donald's personal best qualifying performance in the national championship. Ribarits was thrilled after scoring his second pole for the season. “We had a great session. Sonic provided me with an awesome car as always and the times were really close. I only beat Hunter [McElrea] by two-thousandths of a second so it was really close between us teammates.” “The circuit is awesome, it’s a really technical circuit, the corners are fast and flowing and there isn’t much time to get a break during the lap.” Ribarits hopes to maintain a level-headed approach to the weekend as he aims for a consistent performance in all three races. “I just want to approach this weekend like any other weekend, not overthink it and just go out and do what I need to do and drive the car fast.” “The competition is so high in Formula Ford, especially with my team-mate Hunter being so close. It’s going to be tough but hopefully we can pull through for the win.” Sonic driver Angelo Mouzouris failed to set a time after suffering an electrical issue on his first lap and will start from the rear of the grid for race one. Earlier in the day, an incident in practice two saw Spectrum driver Ben D’Alia make contact with Conor Nicholson, who had spun in front of him. The contact resulted in damage to both D'Alia and Nicholson's right rear corners. Both cars were quickly repaired and the drivers returned for qualifying. Race one is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 10.00am local time. 2018 AFFC Standings after qualifying (Top 10) Hunter McElrea - 207pts Hamish Ribarits - 179pts Zac Soutar - 131pts Angelo Mouzouris - 112pts Nathan Herne - 110pts Liam McLellan - 104pts Lachlan Mineeff - 93pts Bart Horsten - 92pts Cameron Shields - 84pts Cody Donald, Jake Donaldson, Courtney Prince - 57pts