Sargent officially crowned 2021 Australian Formula Ford Champion
The curtains have closed on the 2021 Australian Formula Ford Championship with a brilliant send off at Phillip Island, amid one of the most uncertain years of our Championship since 1969.
In what has been a season of postponed events and interstate travel restrictions due to the ongoing global pandemic, Formula Ford has once again added a new name to the prestigious list of National Champions. This year’s winner is very similar to all of the drivers who have taken the crown before him - highly talented, ultra professional, incredibly fast and going places.
Of course we are talking about Tom Sargent from Young, New South Wales. Sargent dominated our 2021 season aboard his Mygale, taking every pole position and claiming the Championship win by a whopping 97 points. This was CHE’s first Australian Formula Ford Championship win with a customer car, after team manager Cameron Hill won the title in 2015. To make it even sweeter, Noah Sands finished 2nd in the Championship giving CHE a 1-2 in the National Championship.
Spectrum driver Cody Burcher finished third in the final Championship points wash-up, despite missing our second-last round at Winton. Burcher was a strong contender, but unfortunately work commitments kept him away from the race track in early November, meaning he missed a crucial round and associated points.
Thanks to his Australian Formula Ford title, Tom Sargent will be testing a Dick Johnson Racing Mustang Supercar early next year at Queensland Raceway. For finishing 2nd, Noah Sands will be joining the Norwell Motorplex team for a coaching day, while Cody Burcher will receive a racing gear package from Freem Racewear.
The finale at Phillip Island saw Tom Sargent clean sweep the event in the Formula Ford class, while Mitch Gatenby did the same in the FF1600 class. Both Sargent and Gatenby held off the chaos behind to eventually streak away from their rivals in each race. It wasn’t as simple as the results sheets showed though, as the gaggle of Formula Ford’s demonstrated their intensity and skill in what was at times a 10+ car, 3-wide drafting battle on the front straight.
Noah Sands and Cody Donald completed the podium in the Duratec-powered class, after some utterly spectacular driving from the pair across the 3 races.
Brendan Jones and young Jack Clifford finished second and third respectively in the Kent-powered FF1600 class, with Jack ending his rookie year on a high.
We also had a couple of Historic Formula Ford’s running as invited cars during the weekend. Richard Davison was the victor in his RF89 Van Diemen, followed by Peter Lucas in his ex Craig Lowndes Reynard.
It’s been a long and tumultuous two years since we crowned our last Australian Formula Ford Champion at the end of 2019, but we are now more ready than ever for more a huge season of Formula Ford racing in 2022!
2021 Australian Formula Ford Championship Pointscore (top 10)
1st - Thomas Sargent 211pts
2nd - Noah Sands 114pts
3rd - Cody Burcher 106pts
4th - Cody Donald 102pts
5th - Harrison Goodman 96
6th - Valentino Astuti 79
7th - Cameron McLeod 76
8th - Jordyn Sinni 52
9th - Jude Bargwanna 47
10th - Jake Donaldson 40
