A race plan is pretty important when you jump into a single-seater race car.
This year, however, St Paul’s Collegiate School student Taylor Cockerton’s plans have gone out the window – for the right reasons.
Coming into the 2014-15 season, his first in the Formula Ford championship, Cockerton was simply wanting to adjust to a new car.
Having spent four years driving in the Formula First championship, with a best overall finish of third, Cockerton was planning to take a couple of years to settle into his new car before moving up to a bigger, badder race car.
But after a stunning year in his new car, Cockerton leads the NZ Formula Ford championship and looks nearly unbeatable with one round to go.
The final round is at his favoured Hampton Downs track north of Hamilton, where he has enjoyed great success in the past.
Despite the way he has been racing, Cockerton’s lead is only one point heading into the final round, which takes place on March 21-22.
"We're leading the series by one point," Cockerton said.
"We were lying fourth at the start of the last round at Manfeild, and we managed to leapfrog three places and ended up leading."
Cockerton won two of three races that weekend in Feilding but it was the race he did not win, finishing second, which gave him the series lead.
Second placed Caleb Cross and fourth placed Aaron Marr had a coming together on the home straight, meaning both drivers dropped points.
Avoiding the collision, Cockerton finished second behind Luis Leeds and gained enough points to promote him up the overall rankings.
The 17-year-old is on a stunning run, winning nearly every race he has entered since the third round of the series.
He had a tough start to the season but pace was never an issue.
He was penalised in the opening round for a couple scrapes he had with other drivers, and round two saw mechanical issues relegate him to a pair of DNFs.
Since then he has hit his stride and driven every other driver off the track, thanks in part to the consistent car his team have given him.
"Originally it was a two or three year deal. We thought it would take a while to get on the pace but surprisingly it only took a couple of rounds," Cockerton said.
"Hopefully we can win the championship this year and move on to something bigger and better next year."
The bigger and better championship Cockerton hopes to move into is still up in the air but the long-term goal is to race in the V8 Supercars.
Although he has grown to love the single-seater open-wheelers, his ambition is to get behind the wheel of a grunty supercar, racing in Australia and New Zealand.
For now, Cockerton’s only tin top action will be in his 1.6 litre BMW 318, while driving with a restricted licence.
"I'd love to get it out on the track and tap it out actually," Cockerton said.
"I've always been taught by my dad that racing’s for the track, so it’s been really good for me since I got my licence for the road.
"I've been racing cars since I was 12 but it’s really funny how nervous I was when I got my licence. I was probably more nervous than when I'm racing."
That is probably a good thing.
Cockerton will need to keep his nerves of steel on the home track next month when he aims for the series title.
