Leitch dominates ‘the Open’ at Skope Classic


Driving his favourite Toyota Racing Series single-seater, Invercargill racer Brendon Leitch stormed to a four-from-four victory in the new Formula Open category at the annual Skope Classic race meeting at Ruapuna near Christchurch.

The new Formula Open category has been established to give competitive late model single seaters like the classic Formula Pacific/Atlantic cars, Formula Renault racers and Toyota Racing Series’ FT40 and FT50s a place to race.

At the Skope, there were two races per day, all rolling start, with the final being the feature race. The racing featured full grids of 20 cars from TRS, Formula Renault and Formula Atlantic

Leitch’s all-conquering Skope result comes on the heels of a hard-fought sixth place behind brother Damon at January’s New Zealand Grand Prix.

“The Grand Prix was epic, and I had a fantastic duel with [eventual winner] Shane van Gisbergen.”

By contrast, the Skope weekend did not start well.

“We got there on the Friday and the car would only run on three cylinders in the practice sessions. Things didn’t look good but some help from [Toyota Gazoo Racing category chief] Nico Caillol got the issue sorted and I went out and qualified P2 on some pretty old tyres.”

The race weekend became a TRS reunion, with Leitch, TR86 champion Tom Alexander and TRS stalwart Sam MacNeill among those running the series’ cars. fastest laps in each race were shared between Alexander and Leitch, with Leitch posting the overall fastest lap of the weekend - and thus a class lap record - of 1:19.912 for the 3.033 Ruapuna circuit. His time was almost two seconds quicker than that of the fastest Formula 5000 cars present.

“Every race was a battle. The FT40s have less aero and lower drag so they were very fast off the line and into the first corner. It became a matter of getting in front of Tom and Sam and hunting down the lead,” he said. Leitch took four wins, Alexander three second places and MacNeill four third placings, with BMW Race Drivers Series scholarship driver Joshua Donohue taking second place in race two.

Leitch says he is still a-buzz with his Skope performance. It was the first time he had raced at the big southern race weekend – in fact the first time he had been there since he was 11 years old and helped put a crash-battered Porsche back together. He is on the rebound after Covid 19 wrecked plans to race in Europe in 2020. Though his 2021 planning is not yet finalised, he says there are strong indications that it will be a fast and busy year.

 

Skope Classic Formula Open race result link

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Sessions/5992262

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Sessions/5992263

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Sessions/5993033

https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Sessions/5993460


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