BRSCC Formula Ford 1600 Race Report Season 2016 - Issue 2: Silverstone International Circuit, 23rd April Niall at the Double MURRAY MAGIC Pre90: Tinkler Triumphs! First Class wins for Ben
CONTENTS Page Introduction Qualifying Faces of FF1600 Race 1 Race 2 Trophy Presentations 3 4 7 8 13 18 Data & Credits Meeting Type: Double Header Circuit: Silverstone International Circuit Length: 1.8508 miles National Championship: Rounds 3 & 4 Triple Crown: Rounds 1 & 2 Organised by BRSCC Sponsored by Avon Tyres BRSCC FF1600 Championship Co-ordinators: Ian Smith (07939 107888) Lester Forbes (07415 094110) Words & Editing: Dave Williams www.gramtext.co.uk Copyright on Pictures: Bourne Photographic www.bournephotographic.co.uk Lester Forbes www.lesterforbes.co.uk Coming Up: 7th May - Oulton Park Norlthern Championship: Round 3 14th/15th May - Zandvoort National Championship: Rounds 5 & 6 Page: 2
Introduction Two weeks after their season got underway at Oulton Park, the BRSCC s Avon Tyres sponsored National Formula Ford 1600 Championship contenders reconvened at Silverstone, the self-proclaimed Home of British Motorsport. As well as rounds 3 & 4 of the National series the day also marked the start of the Triple Crown which will be decided at Donington Park at the end of August having also taken in races at Brands Hatch in July. With the International Layout being utilised, drivers and teams were housed in the plush surroundings of the Wing Building. Silverstone is renowned for speed and the art of getting the most of the tow was to the fore in many driver s minds. Luke Cooper was closer to the front of the field in the brand new Swift Page: 3
MURRAY TIME Qualifying While others rushed to take the track, Niall Murphy took his time and took pole There was something of a Phoney War at the start of qualifying as only 13 of the 33 cars present were circulating at the start of the session as not everyone was aware that the start time had been moved forwards and then the noise tester was rejected some exhaust systems that had been permitted during Friday s practice day. While many were frustrated not to be out the track, it was a deliberate ploy for Niall Murray to have a late start to the session. Mr Cool decided he did not require the full 20 minutes to set a representative lap time although the queue of cars trying to get under the decibel restrictions did pose a potential hitch to his laid back plans. Nonetheless, he managed to get out with just over half of qualifying remaining and, true to his plans, he set a best lap of 1:11.137 which meant he would start his Bernard Dolan Motorsport Van Diemen RF99 from pole position for race 1. At the time when Murray was exiting the pitlane to start his session, James Raven topped the timing charts in his Cliff Dempsey Racing Ray GR15/16. Although his car initially handled perfectly, he increasingly suffered oversteer. Nonetheless, his best lap was his final circuit despite flirting with the wrath of the Track Limits Authorities as much as he dared and getting away with it. Englishman Raven was the only driver in the quickest four who wasn t Irish as the second row comprised Stephen Daly (Ray GR11) and Jake Byrne (Van Diemen LA10) the latter was really getting to grips with the Motorsport Ireland car. Page: 4
There were more Rays on the third row in the shape of Raven s team mates Cavan Corcoran (GR11) and Chase Owen (GR14/15). Corcoran had been hampered by traffic while a slightly bemused Owen reported a little confusion over how much of the Track Limits he could use. Another disappointed driver was Stuart Gough who was returning to Oldfield Motorsport to drive their Van Diemen DP08 which was driven at Oulton Park s opening meeting of the season by Jonny McMullan. Having been very quick in testing on Friday he was surprised not to be closer to the front. Frustratingly for him, having been second on the timing screens early in the session, he was down to seventh in the final standings having had his final 3 laps disqualified for Track Limits infringements even though he had no idea how they were incurred. The last trio of drivers in the Top Ten were driving new and/or unfamiliar cars. In eighth, Chris Middlehurst had switched to the Van Diemen LA10 he used in 2011. During qualifying his was still experimenting with the set up and, although fighting for provisional pole in the early stages, he found himself bumped down the order as he was unable to find a good tow in the crucial closing moments. The fifth row was shared by two cars that were newly constructed for this season. These were in the hands of the two Luke s, Cooper (Swift SC16) and Williams (RFR RFFF16). For the second meeting in succession, the first 11 drivers qualified within a second of each other. The final man who was a second from Murray s best was John Svensson a welcome visitor from Belgium in his Van Diemen RF92. Fastest Pre90 driver was Michael Beaver in his Mondiale M89S, despite being one of many to be delayed getting out on track. A fortnight earlier in Oulton Park s race 1 he thought he had blown his engine but after replacing the valves all was as good as new. The second quickest in this class was Ben Tinkler. Having finished the rebuild of his Reynard 89FF late on Thursday, teething problems were found during Friday s test day. These required a return home and a late night working on the car which became an early morning. On a Trail of Discovery: Chase Owen was making his Silverstone debut Page: 5
Results The Irish Eyes of Jake Byrne Page: 6
FACES OF FF1600 Page: 7
Race 1 DRAFTING DUELLERS Niall Murray (5) and James Raven (23) had a high speed duel for victory Everyone got away cleanly off the grid. One of the best starts was made by Stephen Daly who almost got between the front row starters Niall Murray and James Raven but decided discretion was the better part of valour when the field reached the first corner, Abbey. This was a good decision as, with Raven sweeping round the outside of Murray to take the lead, there would have been no room for 3 cars. At the end of the opening lap, this trio had already created a gap of a few seconds to the rest of the field as Jake Byrne overtook Chase Owen to move up to fourth at Stowe. Down in sixth as they crossed the timing beam for the first time would have been Stuart Gough but he was ambushed in the braking area for Vale as Cavan Corcoran and John Svensson dived past on either side of him. Gough was able to regain one of these places when he outbraked Svensson into the Village Hairpin on lap 2. It was 3 abreast again at Stowe as team mates Owen and Corcoran both tried to overtake Byrne but only the former gained a position on this occasion but then Corcoran and Gough both passed Byrne at the Vale/Club complex meaning the Irishman had lost three places in two corners. and then Gough once more gained a placed at Village, Corcoran was his victim on this occasion but he was able to get back ahead at Vale. Having not left the grid as briskly as he would have wished, a recovering Chris Middlehurst latched onto the back of this feisty little battle. Upfront the lead changed hands - Murray now ahead of Raven - as Daly held a watching brief 2.5 secs further back in third. The man in front believed he had more pace than Raven but the slipstream effect was preventing him from getting away. A lock up at Stowe by Owen on lap 6 meant he was slow heading towards Vale allowing Corcoran and Gough to get ahead of him. The Texan was also demoted by Middlehurst on the following lap although he had the place back next time through. Then Corcoran s good showing came to a premature end. Gough sped by into fourth down the Hanger Straight and then Corcoran s engine refused to exceed 4,500 rpm. Page: 8
He had asked his team to increase his rev limiter ahead of the race but the system had reset itself midway through the 20 minutes and he dropped agonisingly down the order. Lap 9 saw Gough execute his now signature manoeuvre down the inside into Village to take third from Daly. With the two leaders now more than 10 secs down the road, this is as much progress as he was going to make. For Daly, lap 13 was unlucky for him as he lost places to both Owen and Middlehurst. Third down to sixth now maintained position until the chequered flag fell. As the race entered its closing stages, Raven retook the lead from Murray. The latter saw him coming but remembered a pre-race chat with his team manager, Bernard Dolan who has masses of experience in Formula Ford. He explained that due to the nature of the circuit, it was likely that whoever was leading at the start of the final lap would lose out as the second placed driver took advantage of the tow. Therefore, Murray elected not to defend his position too vigorously and instead tucked in behind and bided his time before making his killer move the final time the lead duo headed down the Hanger Straight. Niall slipstreamed alongside down the right and claimed the inside line for Stowe. It was too late for Raven to respond and he regretted not being more defensive on the main drag down towards this key corner. Back to the midfield battle and in the tail of the two Lukes, Mr Williams gained places to be classified seventh as Mr Cooper had to be satisfied with eleventh. Between them there were John Svensson, David McArthur and Jake Byrne and just 1.7 secs! Svensson comprehensively won Class B while David s brother, Tom McArthur - in an identical Van Diemen LA10 - ran just off the back of this group but admitted to driving like a wet biscuit. Just behind him was Jordan Dempsey (Van Diemen RF00) who had an exciting first race at Silverstone. Although lack of experience of the circuit prevented him from qualifying in the Top Ten he moved up the order in the opening stages of the contest until contact with another car on the Hanger Straight sent him spearing off the tarmac. Fortunately, the 16 year old brought everything back under control before hitting anything solid. Although he was thirteenth on the road, Track Limit penalties dropped him behind Doug Crosbie and Patrik Pasma in their Van Diemen Jordan Dempsey (49) gets racey with Doug Crosbie (54) Page: 9
JL013K and Mygale SJ08 respectively while Swift SC95 man, Dan O Beirne, was half a second away from taking fifteenth from Dempsey on corrected time. Former MSV F3 racer, Henry Chant, was a welcome addition to our category of racing. He brought his Van Diemen RF02 home just behind O Beirne in seventeenth. Matthew Cowley had to modify the exhaust system on his Van Diemen JL13 before being given permission to go out and qualify. This meant there was only time for 3 flying laps and put the Mancunian out of position on the grid all the way down to twenty-second in fact. Despite being hampered by a lack of straight line speed, he worked his way up to fifteenth on the road but Track Limit penalties dropped him down to eighteenth. The Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen JL16 and the Don Hardman tended Ray GR10 of James Scott-Murphy and Vincent Jay completed the Top Twenty. Having gone slower in qualifying than he went in testing the day before, Paul Mason lost the clutch on his Swift SC94 when the seal failed in his master cylinder as he was heading to the Assembly Area. This did not prevent him from enjoying a great battle over what would become twenty-first position with Ben Edwards until the distributor rotor arm broke on the latter s Van Diemen RF92 causing him drop back although he still managed to finish just ahead of the two drivers who were battling for the Pre90 Class honours Ben Tinkler and Michael Beaver plus debutant Brett Ray who was driving a B-M Racing tended Van Diemen RF00 having previously competed in Caterhams. Beaver planned to bed in some brake pads during qualifying but his session was so short he failed to complete the process. The pads made a significant difference to the handling of his car and, having adjusted his car accordingly prior to the race, once they had properly bedded in after a few laps his set up became completely wrong. Furthermore, his exhaust had broken during the green flag laps when warming his rear tyres on the Hanger Straight and then, with a great deal of irony, after 6 or 7 laps the wiring on his fire extinguisher caught fire! The conflagration also set the pipe going to the oil temperature gauge alight. Beaver thought about retiring but, eventually, the flames went out by themselves. Having regained his concentration Beaver overtook George McDonald and Brett Ray in the closing stages with Tinkler in his slip-stream. The latter had taken his time early in the contest and dropped to third in class behind Ian Wolfenden. Ben was given quite a scare when Wolfenden spun in front of him but he was then able to reel in Michael. The Pre90 battle between Ben Tinkler (18) and Michael Beaver (88) went down to the wire Page: 10
The first part of the final lap was very strange with Beaver and Tinkler both driving as slowly as possible because neither wanted to be ahead down the Hanger Straight and therefore a sitting duck. Unfortunately for Beaver, his rival did not accept his invitation to pass early in the lap and then swept by into Stowe despite Tinkler fearing that he hadn t carried enough speed out of Becketts. Beaver thought all was not lost as he could make a last ditch bid to get back ahead at Vale but, having attempted to take that corner side by side with two other cars a couple of laps earlier, McDonald got on the marbles and spun off there. With his rear wheels stuck in the gravel trap he couldn t move and the yellow flags covering his stricken car prevented Beaver from making his intended challenge on Tinkler. Thus Ben recorded his maiden Pre90 victory. The other two drivers who failed to finish this contest were Jack Wolfenden in his Van Diemen JL013K and James Roe. The latter was suffering from a misfire/flat spot in his engine as well as no brakes. This was most frustrating as his RFR RFFF16 had been running really well in testing at Croft. The classified runners were completed by Ian Wolfenden (Jack s Dad in a Reynard 87FF), Laurent Poncin (Van Diemen RF92), Nick Barnes (Van Diemen RF87), the rev limited Corcoran and Iain Houston. As he had been at Oulton, Houston was hampered by a misfire on his Van Diemen RF89. The B-M Racing team thought it had been cured up in Cheshire but, most likely, it had been masked by the wet conditions of the second race there as it returned to full effect in qualifying and then again a couple of corners into this race. So it was back to the drawing board for Houston, his crew and all the helpful sages in the paddock as they valiantly tried to solve the problem before he went out again. Brett Ray made the switch from Caterhams to FF1600 in a strikingly liveried Van Diemen RF00 Page: 11
Results James Roe and the super sleek RFR RFFF16 Page: 12
Race 2 SLICK WORK Niall Murray completed his double despite the oil slick that was laid down during the race With the grid decided by the finishing order of race 1, Niall Murray and James Raven were once again on the front row. Murray made a terrible start allowing Raven to take the lead off the line as Stephen Daly and Chase Owen shot through into second and third from fourth and fifth on the grid, jumping ahead of Stuart Gough as well as Murray. At Village, Daly locked up and ran a little wide allowing Raven to make an initial break. Second, third and fourth were three abreast at the end of the Hanger Straight as Murray moved into the runner-up position at Stowe by passing Daly and Owen in one manoeuvre. Niall sneaked down their inside as the duo he was in pursuit of appeared to be focussing on each other. Murray had great pace once more and at the start of the second lap he had already built up a comfortable advantage over Daly. Then at Stowe, he was gifted the lead as Raven locked his rears under braking and ran very wide. Fortunately, for the man from Portsmouth there is a large tarmac run off area at that section of track and he was able to rejoin in fourth. With Daly employing a strong rearguard action to hold on to second place Murray was able to open up a 3 and a half second lead by lap 8 when Raven finally breached Daly s defences by getting more drive out of Club enabling him to blast past over the grid hatchings. Although he had a clear advantage, Murray became a little concerned as he was lapping 5 or 6 seconds off his expected pace but then he realised no one was gaining on him and there must be a common problem. In fact there had been quite a high rate of attrition in this contest resulting in the tarmac now having a liberal coating of oil. Page: 13
In the closing stages Raven realised that grip levels were increasing at certain parts of the track as some of the lubricant that had gone down was dissipating. He closed rapidly on Murray who could see him coming but judged, correctly, that his lead would remain intact until the chequered flag was unfurled and decided not to take risks by experimenting with his lines to find more grip. After the opening two rounds at Oulton, Murray had been fifth in the National points standings but his double victory at Silverstone leap frogged him to the top of the table and put him in prime position at this early stage to book his place on the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout not to mention him being the early leader of the Triple Crown. Gough moved up to fourth by out-dragging Owen down the Hanger Straight and this became third when Stephen Daly had a coming together with Ben Edwards as he tried to lap him at Vale. This put both out of the contest. Edwards had been running slowly because he had been unable to resolve the issue with his distributor arm between the races. Ben had enjoyed being in the Formula Ford paddock for the first time this season even though the events out on the circuit didn t go to his liking. Owen couldn t quite keep pace with Gough over the final few laps and he finished 2.5 secs down in fourth but he had 12 secs in hand over Chris Middlehurst who felt he could have been challenging for a podium had he not made his second poor start of the day. Tom McArthur had thrown away his wet biscuit and was delighted to battle up the order to be classified sixth ahead of the two Lukes, Messers Williams and Cooper. Now that he could to use as many revs as he wished, Cavan Corcoran was able to charge through from the back of the grid all the way up to ninth after his frustrating opening encounter. Completing the Top Ten was Doug Crosbie who had been racing on this circuit for the Chris Middlehurst (2), Luke Williams (95) and Tom McArthur (17) battle amongst the midfield Page: 14
first time. Having been unable to test on Friday, he was on a learning curve throughout the day during which he struggled to get the gearing and set up to his liking. Crosbie was not alone on his learning curve as coming home behind him was Patrik Pasma who finished eleventh having only had his first single-seater race at Oulton Park a fortnight earlier. Twelfth was Dan O Beirne who, with John Svensson retiring due to an oil leak and George McDonald starting from the back after his earlier off, took the spoils in Class B. Svensson had been aiming for a top 5 finish but when his oil pressure began to fall, he decided to pull out of the race as he did not have a spare power unit. Other drivers who failed to finish were Jack Wolfenden, Jordan Dempsey and Michael Beaver. A great start had put Dempsey in the middle of the huge battle for fifth. Although hampered a little when the oil began to go down he remained in touch until he too hit mechanical trouble when a pipe became detached from his sump. The young Irishman managed to bring the car to a halt without destroying his engine. After his multitude of problems earlier in the day, Michael Beaver had his set up sorted out and exhaust fixed in time for this race. He was running well until his gear linkage broke preventing him from changing down on the approach to Vale. Unable to use engine braking to slow his Mondiale, he spun off. A further two entrants were unclassified. Both James Roe and Iain Houston continued to be plagued by misfires and spent so much time in the pits that they failed to complete 80% of the race distance. In the case of Houston, he overlooked this ruling and would have persevered out on the track as a large number of points in the Pre90 class were on offer had he continued. Number 9, Cavan Corcoran, finished 9th having started at the back of the grid Page: 15
For Ben Tinkler, it was two Pre90 wins out of two! From eighteenth on the grid Matthew Cowley worked his way up to thirteenth but then a lug on a rear upright broke. This caused the brake caliper to rub against the wheel which affected the braking performance of his car. As a result he ceded a place to Harry Chant. The reigning Pre90 National Champion did feel he was starting to get to grips with the Post89 Class chassis however. David McArthur had a spin at the second corner but recovered during the course of the race to finish sixteenth just behind Jake Byrne who was twice caught out on by the oil that went down. Having broken his duck earlier with his first Pre90 win, Ben Tinkler got his head down from the start of this encounter to make it two on the bounce. James Scott-Murphy, Ian Wolfenden and Vincent Jay completed the Top Twenty. Former karter, Scott-Murphy continues to learn what circuit racing is all about while Wolfenden got to know his Reynard 87FF a little better having debuted it at Oulton. Having started from the back after his earlier spin, George McDonald enjoyed having the opportunity to overtake a few cars enroute to twenty-first. Behind him, Brett Ray successfully completed his second Formula Ford race. Paul Mason managed to get up to eighteenth at one point despite only having an operational clutch at the start but then felt he was over cautious after the oil went down. He was then hit by a faster car as it was trying to gain positions following an earlier spin. This impact bent Mason s exhaust and he slipped backwards from then on. Only Nick Barnes finished behind him. Stuart Gough took a brace of podiums on his return to the Championship Page: 16
Results Paul Mason soldiered on despite no clutch Page: 17
BRSCC Formula Ford 1600: Race Report - Silverstone International Circuit, 23rd April TROPHY PRESENTATIONS Page: 18
BRSCC Formula Ford 1600: Race Report - Silverstone International Circuit, 23rd April Page: 19
This report was produced by www.gramtext.co.uk & Special Offers for BRSCC FF1600 Drivers Portfolio of photos from Double Header Meeting for 50! 10 for a file of Hi-Rez photos from a Double Header Meeting Offers for a Limited Time Period Book in advance for Zandvoort to ensure we cover all angles Visit www.bournephotographic.co.uk for hundreds images from this meeting!! Please note: The images in this report are all low resolution. High quality pictures from the meeting - in hard or soft copy formats - can be obtained from Bourne Photographic Page: 20