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Photo: Tom Tweedie at Sandown Park.
Image: Dirk Klynsmith |
TOM TWEEDIE IS BACK – and this time he is hoping to
end his year with a CAMS Gold Star which is Australia's
highest open wheel racing car award.
The 21-year-old
Sydney driver will return to the Formula 3 Australian Drivers
Championship for the 2010 racing season and will this year
seek the outright title to go with a superb National Class
victory – and the inaugural Graham Watson Rookie of the year
award - he scored last season.
Tweedie was something
of a revelation in his first year of ‘wings and slicks’
racing, dominating the National Class for 2004-spec F3 cars
and placing on the outright podium three times.
The
second-generation driver will begin his 2010 campaign in his
existing Sodemo Renault-powered F304 Dallara, with the
potential to step into a later model car from round three
onwards.
“The first two rounds are at tracks
(Wakefield Park and Symmons Plains) which suit the F304 cars,
which have less downforce than the newer cars so it makes
sense to run with what we know and use our data from last year
to keep improving,” Tweedie said.
“We gained speed all
last year and finished with excellent results at the
Sandown finale’, where we nearly scored pole position on
several occasions and finished a great third outright in race
one.
“A 2004-spec car got pole in Tasmania in 2008,
and an even older model car finished on third outright in the
SuperPrix that same year, so that could be a very good track
for us.
“After Symmons Plains we will re-appraise the
situation and look at upgrading to a newer car for the
remainder of the season, but a lot of that depends on budget.
There are six tracks on this years calendar that will not give
the later cars a massive advantage so we are hoping for a good
year, regardless of the car, and some more podiums.
“With continued reliability perhaps a strong placing
in the final Gold Star standings won’t be out of the question”
and the
Tweedie’s family-backed team will also undergo
change this year, experienced chief mechanic Richie Kearny
departing to his native UK to further his career.
Tweedie says that his team has already spoken to
several potential replacements from both here and abroad and
is confident of maintaining their faultless mechanical record
into the New Year. A new transporter / trailer will complete
the professional outfit as they seek to climb the ladder even
higher this season.
He said plans were coming together
well and that existing sponsors looked to be coming back for
the new season.
“Battery World has been fantastic and
they have expressed an interest in returning, as have Tizzana
Vineyards. We expect things to fall into place quickly and
begin a limited testing program in February before the start
of the season, to keep engine miles down.
“I’m really
looking forward to the season,” He added. “If we can continue
the momentum and reliability we showed in 2009 then it could
be a really good year.”
Tweedie has also received an
invitation to possibly contest some rounds of the British
Formula 3 Championship with Team West-Tec, with whom he tested
and raced with late in 2009.
The rounds fall in a
two-month break in the Australian schedule later in the year.
The first round of the 2010 Formula 3 Australian Drivers
Championship kicks off at Wakefield Park Raceway in Goulburn,
on March 5 – 7.
Cheers TOM
For more information head to www.tomtweedie.com
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