Bromley leads AFO points after Winton victory

Oil Baron Supply racer Miles Bromley is the points leader in the Giti Australian Formula Open after two race wins and the round victory at Winton Motor Raceway last month (April 26-28).

Round 1 winner Kyle Evans (#17 KCK Lubricants) had lead the points after the season-opener at Sandown Raceway in February, but Bromely’s dominance at Winton - and subsequent misfortune for Evans in Race 1 - meant the #9 Oil Baron Supply F3 driver leads the series by three points heading into Round 3 at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend (May 24-26).

Victorian-based racer Bromley was second outright heading into the Winton round behind Evans but finished the weekend with a one-point advantage over Tim Macrow Racing stablemate Ryan MacMillan (#21) who currently sits second outright on points ahead of Evans now in third.

“It feels good to be back in the championship lead again… Kyle Evans beat me to it in the last race of Round 1 at Sandown, so I’m glad to have it now heading into the next event in Sydney,” said Bromley.

This weekend’s event at the Eastern-Creek located circuit will be only the second time Bromley has raced there, with his first outing being the first time he ever raced in his Dallara F3 car last April.

“I’m excited to go back to the track and be able to have more knowledge about the cars and more general pace within me. Obviously the goal for Round 3 is to extend my championship lead. I’ll have guests from my sponsor Oil Baron Supply coming to spectate so I want to make sure I put on a good show and keep the points lead after this weekend!” said Bromley.

Recapping Round 2 in Victoria, MacMillan was the early standout topping qualifying on Saturday by 0.05sec over Bromley with a time of 1m15.7748s; impressive considering he had never driven the 3km circuit before.Beau Russell (#22) qualified third outright, while topping the AFO4 class was Evoheat’s Isaac McNeill (#11), and Matt Roesler (#4) was the sole driver in AFO2 in his TRS FT-50.

Race 1 at Winton saw Bromley make the jump on MacMillan at the start, with both maintaining respective positions until the chequered flag. Russell finished 3rd which was his second race top-three finish since making his debut at Phillip Island in November. Evans made an unfortunate error on lap 5 out of Turn 4 and needed to be recovered to join rear of the field, paving the way for George Kantzios (#27) to score a best result of fourth in class. AFO4 steerer McNeill won the class over Jayden Hamilton (#43) with his fourth place outright on track.

Race 2 on Sunday morning saw Bromley and MacMillan on the front row again, but in reverse order to Saturday’s first race. A tight squeeze into Turn 1, Bromley held the inside line to stay ahead of MacMillan and was never thwarted. Having a combined grid with Formula Race Cars for the weekend, an early safety car was called at the end of lap one to recover FRCA competitor Arthur Abrahams #19 and AFO regular Kantzios who both spun out. The biggest mover on the opening lap was Evans who moved from a 13-place start up into fifth as the SC was called.

Russell jumped MacMillan on the restart, and remained in second place until lap seven when the #22 ended up beached in the sand trap into Turn 7. The race was completed under SC with Bromley, MacMillan and Evans taking the top three, McNeill the winner of AFO4 and Roesler for AFO2.

The final feature race late on Sunday carried additional championship points and MacMillan took the lead on the start momentarily before a switchback from Bromley saw #9 lead out of Turn 2. Roesler was up to 4th outright among the AFO racers on the first lap, while McNeill also put pressure on the front-running F3 competitors despite being in an F4 Tatuus.

On lap 10, MacMillan made a pass on Bromley to the take the lead for the final handful of laps and his first race win in Giti AFO. With Bromley claiming an extra point for the fastest lap of the race, the new championship leader took the overall round win on points to make up for not winning the final race. Evans maintained third place all race with Russell making amends to finish fourth outright. McNeill took his third race win in AFO4 and same with Roesler for AFO2.

Download the Round 2 Results Book here from Winton, and check out the current championship points here after two rounds in 2024.

Round 3 of Giti AFO is being held at Sydney Motorsport Park this weekend from May 24-26, with online streaming of races thanks to Blendline TV.