A character building weekend at Brands Hatch

After our progress at the previous Snetterton round of the Dunlop MSA Formula Ford championship of Great Britain I was thoroughly looking forward to our next outing on the famous Brands Hatch GP track.

This was my first time driving on the GP circuit and it was great to think that I was on a section of track that rarely gets used because of noise restrictions limiting the number of days cars are allowed on it.

Things didn’t begin too well however after a pure error on my behalf damaged the front of the car in the first practice session and I was forced to pit to repair the damage.

Sessions two and three were held in torrential rain which I must admit wasn’t ideal for learning the high speed sections of the GP loop, however we were able to make progress in both sessions and I felt that I at least had a grasp of the wet conditions.

However that was as good as things got! Qualifying was dry which was the first time I had ever driven the circuit in anything that resembled normal conditions and I was quite cautious in bringing the tires up to temperature. After all I didn’t want a repeat of my free practice 1 antics now did I ;)

Race 1 was rain interrupted which resulted in the entire field pitting and changing tyres and setup to cope with the sudden downpour, however for me race 2 was where the real action lied!

After a great start for race 2 I was well up in the 27 car strong pack and battling hard for position, when my good friend Nils Versterguaard was tapped into a spin at Graham Hill bend. Unfortunately for both Nils and I he was left broadside across the track and I was unable to avoid him, removing the right rear corner of my car at 90mph on his left front.

With the left hand side of my car still looking pretty handy at this point I found myself in slow motion as the car slid onto the wet grass and into the barrier. The result sadly is a Juno Formula Ford Chassis that is looking very second hand indeed.

Due to the severity of the accident I was escorted off to the Brands Hatch medical centre for a full assessment and I feel I should comment on just how professional and polite they were, despite a Juno driver in their building pumped with adrenaline and claiming he was totally fine and wanted to get back in the race!

After a 15minuite monitoring period and plenty of questions I was released and thankfully can report I feel perfectly fine. A massive thank you to both the marshals and medical team for everything.

As a driver and team owner its always very frustrating when you are involved in an accident that wasn’t instigated by your mistake, however that’s the risk we run in Motorsport and I think if it wasn’t that way then a great deal of the thrill would be lost.

I will leave you this week with a fact about visibility while driving a Formula Ford during a wet race, consider that in your road car, approximately 100 metres behind a car producing large spray, your visibility is reduced by 27%. In a Formula Ford, at 100mph, 10 metres from the car in front you cannot see an object half a metre in front of your face! You are purely driving using you peripheral vision with references from the side of the track as you are passing them.

I don’t have an actual percentage figure for this reduction in visibility but I would put money on it being at least 90%.

Until next time

David 

Time to take stock and develop a strategy.

After three very exciting races on the new Snetterton 300 circuit last month its now time to focus all my resources on the next round of the championship at Brands Hatch on June 18^th and 19^th. This will be the first time that I have ever raced on the prestigious Brands Grand Prix track which I must say I am really looking forward too.

The track itself combines many of the key turns associated with the Indy layout but also some truly great corners through the woodland at the back of the circuit. As well as being one of the British Formula Ford races it also marks the start of the Euro Cup, which will see teams and drivers from across Europe come and race with us making a real Formula Ford spectacle.













My 3 Snetterton races held on May 14^th and 15th were what I class as a success, with my best results to date. There is still plenty of ground to be made up to the pace setting teams of Jamun and JTR but I’m confident that with a cool head and my gritty determination that we will get there bit by bit.

The footage from Snetterton is already out on Motors TV but will also be broadcast this Saturday, 4^th June, at 7am on channel 4.

For all of you who are able to attend Brands Hatch I truly hope to put on a show for you and please do stop by and say hello.

David