2025 Australian Formula Open

2025 Australian Formula Open

Drivers' Champion: Michael Doherty

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The 2025 Australian Formula Open: Driven by FRCA was a multi-event open-wheel single seater motor racing championship. This was the third season of the Australian Formula Open series, which was originally founded by two-time Australian Gold Star winner Tim Macrow in 2023 as a direct successor to the Australian Formula 3 championship. ^[1]

When AFO's original organizers launched the AU3 Championship for 2025, the AFO moniker was taken over mid-year by the organizers of the NSW Formula Car Championship, an open formula championship run since 2011 as one of Motorsport Australia's State Championships. That saw that championship effectively be rebranded under the AFO guise. ^[2]

The championship was run over five weekends from February to October. ^[3] Performer Australia's Michael Doherty won the Drivers' Championship title at the penultimate race of the season.

Teams and drivers

All teams and drivers were Australian-registered.

Team	No.	Driver	Car	Rounds
Baker Motorsport - Team Penrite	1	Rodney Baker	Dallara F399	All
RMS Racing	3	Robert Sviderskas	Mantis M2-001	All
Genesis Offices	4	Robert Rowe	Dallara F308	4
TWS Motorsport	14	Trent Shirvington	Mygale M11	1
M Roesler Motorsport		Matthew Roesler	Tatuus FT-50	4
CO Machining	21	Graeme Holmes	Dallara F3	2–5
Sydney Photo Booth / AGI Sport	23	Lawrence Katsidis	Dallara F304	All
Apollo Patios	24	Nathan Beer	Dallara F305/7	1–3, 5
Phil Morrow Racing	25	Phil Morrow	Dallara F305/7	1, 3, 5
CPL	37	Ben Turner	Dallara F3	4
Formula Race Car Association	41	Greg Muddle	Dallara F305	1–4
Performer Australia	42	Michael Doherty	Performer P1000	All
	72	Shane Varley	Performer P1000	1–2, 4–5
Douglas Barry Specials	44	Douglas Barry	Reynard 92D	1–4
ARB Bundaberg	51	Ron Bennet	Dallara F399/01	4
Eagle Transportation Pty Ltd	55	Glenn Lynch	Dallara F397	1, 3
3 Amigos Racing	76	Jeffrey Senior	Dallara F302	3–4
SMJ Plastering	95	Shayne Morrow	Dallara F300/01	1, 5
Raven Gruppe	666	Adam Savic	Stohr F1000	All
Privateer	73	Simon Bedford	Dallara F3	4–5
	88	Andrew Fitzpatrick	Mygale M14-F4	1
	655	Abhishek Jain	Swift 2015	2
Source: [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]

Race calendar

The 2025 calendar was announced in early January of 2024 - still under the guise of the NSW Formula Car Challenge. ^[9] Compared to 2024, two events at One Raceway were added while Sydney Motorsport Park only hosted two instead of three rounds. A sixth event at Morgan Park Raceway was also part of the first version of the calendar, but was later removed.

Round		Circuit	Date	Support bill	Map of circuit locations
1	R1	One Raceway, Goulburn	22 February	NSW Production Touring Cars NSW Improved Production Championship New South Wales Formula Ford Championship	Winton Sydney Goulburn
	R2		23 February
	R3
2	R1	Winton Motor Raceway, Winton	10 May	NSW Production Touring Cars NSW Improved Production Championship Victorian Improved Production Championship New South Wales Formula Ford Championship
	R2		11 May
	R3
3	R1	Sydney Motorsport Park, Eastern Creek	26 July	Australian Formula Ford Championship NSW Production Touring Cars NSW Improved Production Championship SuperSports NSW State Championship
	R2
	R3
4	R1		27 September	NSW Production Touring Cars NSW Improved Production Championship SuperSports NSW State Championship NSW Sports Sedan State Championship
	R2		28 September
	R3
5	R1	One Raceway, Goulburn	18 October	NSW Sports Sedan State Championship SuperSports NSW State Championship New South Wales Formula Ford Championship
	R2		19 October
	R3

Race results

Round		Circuit	Pole position	Fastest lap	Winning driver	Winning team
1	R1	One Raceway	Trent Shirvington	Trent Shirvington	Trent Shirvington	TWS Motorsport
	R2			Trent Shirvington	Trent Shirvington	TWS Motorsport
	R3			Rodney Baker	Rodney Baker	Baker Motorsport - Team Penrite
2	R1	Winton Motor Raceway	Michael Doherty	Rodney Baker	Rodney Baker	Baker Motorsport - Team Penrite
	R2			Michael Doherty	Michael Doherty	Performer Australia
	R3			Michael Doherty	Michael Doherty	Performer Australia
3	R1	Sydney Motorsport Park	Douglas Barry	Michael Doherty	Michael Doherty	Performer Australia
	R2			Michael Doherty	Michael Doherty	Performer Australia
	R3			race cancelled after delays to race weekend schedule
4	R1		Rodney Baker	Douglas Barry	Michael Doherty	Performer Australia
	R2			Rodney Baker	Rodney Baker	Baker Motorsport - Team Penrite
	R3			Robert Rowe	Douglas Barry	Douglas Barry Specials
5	R1	One Raceway	Rodney Baker	Rodney Baker	Michael Doherty	Performer Australia
	R2			Rodney Baker	Rodney Baker	Baker Motorsport - Team Penrite
	R3			Graeme Holmes	Graeme Holmes	CO Machining

Championship standings

Points were awarded as follows:

Position	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th
Points	25	18	15	12	10	8	6	4	2	1

Pos Driver ONE1 WIN SYD1 SYD2 ONE2 Pts R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 1 Michael Doherty 6 5 4 2 1 1 1 1 C 1 2 3 1 3 6 254 2 Rodney Baker 5 2 1 1 Ret 2 4 3 C 4 1 2 2 1 Ret 221 3 Lawrence Katsidis 3 3 6 4 4 4 6 4 C Ret 9 8 Ret 5 2 128 4 Graeme Holmes WD WD WD 2 2 C Ret 6 9 4 2 1 101 5 Shane Varley 10 8 10 Ret 2 3 9 5 4 3 4 5 100 6 Adam Savic 9 10 11 3 3 Ret 8 7 C 8 10 7 Ret 8 4 70 7 Nathan Beer 2 6 7 WD WD WD DNS 9 C Ret 6 3 57 8 Douglas Barry DNS Ret 5 WD WD WD 7 DNS C Ret 3 1 56 9 Trent Shirvington 1 1 Ret 50 10 Jeffrey Senior 3 5 C 7 7 5 47 11 Andrew Fitzpatrick 4 4 2 42 12 Greg Muddle 11 Ret 3 DNS Ret WD 9 8 C 3 WD WD 36 13 Glenn Lynch 7 7 8 5 6 C 34 14 Robert Sviderskas Ret DNS DNS DNS 5 5 10 Ret C Ret 12 Ret 8 Ret WD 25 15 Ron Bennet 5 4 Ret 22 16 Simon Bedford 10 11 10 6 7 7 22 17 Matthew Roesler 6 8 6 20 18 Robert Rowe 2 Ret Ret 18 19 Shayne Morrow 8 9 9 5 Ret Ret 18 20 Phil Morrow Ret Ret DNS Ret DNS C 7 9 Ret 8 — Abhishek Jain WD WD WD 0 — Ben Turner WD WD WD 0 Pos Driver R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3 Pts ONE1 WIN SYD1 SYD2 ONE2

Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Points classification Blue Non-points classification Non-classified finish (NC) Purple Retired, not classified (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Withdrew (WD) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Did not arrive (DNA) Excluded (EX) Bold – Pole Italics – Fastest Lap † — Did not finish, but classified

References

1. "Australian Formula Open Calendar confirmed – The Race Torque". Archived from the original on 21 December 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
2. "AUSTRALIAN FORMULA OPEN - Australia's home of wings and slicks - DRIVEN BY FRCA". Australian Formula Open. Retrieved 2 June 2025.
3. "2025 Calendar » Formula Race Cars Association" . Retrieved 2 June 2025.
4. "NSW Motor Race Championship - Round 1 One Raceway - Wakefield Circuit: NSW Motorsport Australia Formula Car Champ - Qualifying". Natsoft Race Results. 22 February 2025. Retrieved 22 February 2025.
5. "NSW Motor Racing Championship (NSWMRC)". Winton Motor Raceway . 2 May 2025. Retrieved 3 May 2025.
6. "2025 NSW Motor Race Championship Day / Night - Round 4 - Sydney Motorsport Park Gardner - 2025 MSA NSW Formula Open Championship - Qualifying". Natsoft Race Results. 26 July 2025. Retrieved 26 July 2025.
7. "V2-FINAL-Entry-List-MRC-R5-2025" (PDF). ARDC. Retrieved 25 September 2025.
8. "2025 NSW Motor Race Championship - Round 6 One Raceway - Wakefield Circuit - 2025 MSA NSW Formula Race Cars Championship - Qualifying". Natsoft Race Results. 18 October 2025. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
9. "2025 Calendar » Formula Race Cars Association" . Retrieved 7 January 2025.

External links

• Website of the Formula Race Cars Association, organizer of the NSW Formula Car Championship
• Website of the Australian Formula Open