Driver Profile - Ben Morley
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Resides: Woodberry
Contact: Ben Morley Bio: Ben’s motor racing career started in go-karts at age 9, when his father Brian, decided he would retire from racing himself after winning the Bridgestone International off-road race in 1987. With Brian’s tutoring, Ben quickly became competitive in karts and won the most outstanding rookie award in his first year. Ben competed in Karts for five years, winning many titles and driving for two National teams before moving on to hillclimbs in 1993 at age 14. At that time, to compete in State level hillclimbs the minimum age to compete was 16. It was arranged that if Ben attended and passed an accredited racing driving school course (normally used to attain a full circuit racing license) he could then compete in the NSW Hillclimb championship. Ben did the two-day Peter Finlay International Racing Drivers School course at Oran Park, achieved an “A grade” pass and absolutely loved it. By doing this he was the CAMS youngest licensed driver. Ben recommends anyone interested in learning about car control and driving techniques to do this course. In 1994 Ben competed in the whole hillclimb series in a1976 model Hawk Formula Ford with a Lotus Twin cam engine. Ben finished that year winning his class and finishing second Outright to Peter Finlay. From 1995 – 1998 Ben competed mainly in the NSW Formula Ford Championship. He drove a 1988 Reynard for three years finishing in the top five outright consistently and won the Pre-90 model class. In 98 he upgraded to a 06B Spectrum. Ben won 3 of the 6 rounds that year and was eventually beaten by the late Stuart McColl in the last race of the final round. In his time in Formula Ford he was fortunate enough to compete at Bathurst twice. “What a buzz. It really is amazing racing around there. My favorite part has got to be going over the top of the mountain at around 200k’s then down into the dipper. Just getting used to going down Conrod at around 250k’s takes a few laps, let alone going through the “Chase” at that speed.” Without being able to afford to compete at National level in Formula Ford Ben sold the car and accepted an offer to clean up and virtually re-build an Mk 7 Cheetah F2 in exchange for driving it. “Sounded alright at the start, but boy did we do some work that year”! “These cars really are awesome to drive. With the engine screaming and the wings and slicks doing what there meant to, the G-forces you can achieve are amazing. Under heavy braking you literally are hanging off the seat belts”. In 2001 Ben entered the ‘Chance Of A Lifetime’ driving competition in which he finished 2nd by 0.004sec out of 150 drivers. This earnt him a drive in the Kumho Tyres MGF series, a support category for the V8 Supercars. Ben had a perfect start to the season sharing a win each with Rick Bates at the opening round. The competition provided him with a great experience traveling all over the country. Unfortunately the luck didn’t stay with him for the whole series as he was caught up in some incidents, which cost him quite a lot of points. At the end of the series though, Ben still managed 3rd position, had the most pole positions and had the most wins which earnt him much respect from the other drivers. For the past few years Ben has competed occasionally in some National Formula Ford events working his way within the top 5 in some races but has mainly been sharing driving with his wife Diana in local club events in their WRX. They have managed to result highly in local rounds of State championships in Hillclimbing and Rallysprints while Ben has been concentrating on managing the Icon Motorsport Team. In 2006 Ben was excited and looked forward to the challenge of returning to the driver’s seat for a full time drive within the team he manages, to contest the NSW Formula Ford State Championships after an eight year absence from the series. Ben had a high belief in the cars speed that he prepares and was hopeful of achieving some good results in the Spectrum 09. His high expectations of the cars speed quickly proved to be very true. In the first half of the season, Ben had 2 pole positions and set a new series record by winning 8 races in a row. (the biggest winning streak in the history of the series). For the remainder of the season at all of the circuits and in each of the races, Ben continued to enforce himself as the one to beat. Although his winning streak ended, he finished the year with a total of 12 race wins and had won enough points, that he won the series with 1½ rounds to spare. Looking at these results makes it look as if Ben had a run away season, but it was anything but. “This season has been one of the hardest fought series I’ve competed in. In some of the finishes we had, there was less than a tenth of a second splitting us. And of the 6 races I didn’t manage to win, there were 5 different winners”. Ben would like to thank team owner Derryn Harrison especially for his assistance in getting him back into the driver seat and all of the Icon Motorsport team, Borland Racing developments and Peter Larner Engines for all of their help and support throughout this successful season. The Icon Motorsport team is helping to try and find a way for Ben to compete in the highly competitive 2007 Formula Ford national series next year. |
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