Conference terri::cars_uk

2332.0. "Formula Ford Festival 1994" by CRASHR::JILLY (COSROCS -- In Thrust We Trust) Tue Oct 25 1994 17:00

Article 613 of rec.autos.sport.misc:
From: [email protected] (Alasdair Heads)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.sport.misc
Subject: F.FORD Festival 94


Greetings fellow Formula Ford fanatics

 I've just got back to my desk after a furious week at Brands Hatch and boy 
was I tired when I got home last night, since there is a finite limit to the 
number of times I can push these things out of the kitty litter. 

 Instead of getting the nose to the grindstone and disposing of last weeks 
work that was sitting on my desk, I'd rather tell you all about my 
recollections/impressions of the week.


Any views expressed are mine and entirely subjective, and since I'd rather 
have a beer when the racing is over instead of picking up result sheets, may 
be prone to alcohol induced gaps/errors.

results follow shortly...








FF1600(Kent) category run as 4 heats, 2 semis and a final
  A strong challenge was expected from the Irish (who uphold the true faith 
and stick with 1600s) and they delivered the goods by providing the front 
row for the final, but they were unable to capitalise on this with one of 
them spinning off whilst leading on about the 2nd lap.

 This should have been a 20 lap race but on lap 12 our local circuit 
champion Mark MARCHANT(Jamun 94) caused a stoppage. Mark had had a troubled 
weekend, with a dreadfully misfiring engine in the heat only allowing him to 
qualify at the back in his semi, and thus midfield for the final. Marchant 
had been putting together an excellent race and had moved up through the 
field to challenge Adrian COTTRELL(Swift 93) for 2nd place.
Cottrell had led for a few laps but had been passed by Gavin WILLS(Swift 92) 
and Wills now started to pull away. Marchant later claimed that the prospect 
of Wills getting too far away made him too impatient, and certainly his 
lunge at getting past Cottrell looked ill timed. In typical F.Ford fashion 
Marchant rode over the back of Cottrell's car, was flipped into a roll and 
ended wrong side down in the gravel trap. Marchant was quickly out, 
repenting his move. Cottrell was also out due to deranged rear suspension, 
this was a great shame since Cottrell was putting on a great show after not 
racing at all for the past 3 years, spending his time insted engineering 
other guys in F.Ford and F.Renault. As more than half distance had been run 
we all hoped for the race to be declared at the time of stoppage, since 
these 3 drivers had put on an excellent race and Cottrell and Marchant 
certainly deserved podium places. Officialdom, however, seldom agrees with 
the enthusiast and a restart over 7 laps was announced, with results on 
aggregate times.
 The result was fairly academic, all Wills had to do was stay in front, the 
driver in 4th at the time of the stoppage had been well back in F Ford 
terms(about 1 sec). This he duly did. Who was second and third ... don't ask 
me, this is one of those beer gaps, but one of them was Alistair WESTON(Van 
Diemen 92) and the other may have been Scottish??
 Marchant at least picked up award for the unluckiest driver, although IMHO 
Cottrell was the more impressive given his lack of racing recently.


 FF1800(Zetec) run as 2 semis and a final (with a last chance sprint for the 
last 6 of the final grid positions)

 During testing I had been impressed by the speed of Jason WATT, Ralph 
FIRMIN, Bas LEINDERS, Andy CHARSLEY and Cyrille SAUVAGE.

 Young Ralph had the misfortune to end up in my gravel trap during 
Thursday's testing, and then had the temerity to ask me who would be paying 
for the damage to his car if I did'nt stop the session and someone else hit 
his car. ( Surely you don't pay, Ralph Jnr!, and doesn't Dad give discount 
to family). The car was well off the track and quite safe and in about 5 
minutes one of his fellow drivers did leave his car in a silly enough place 
to cause a stoppage. In the meanwhile Firman had expressed that he was 
fairly confident of victory whatever the weather.

 Andy CHARSLEY(Ray 94) another of our local heroes was going well in testing 
until he had a massive shunt on Wednesday in the last 10 minutes of the day. 
He claims something broke (but most do). The result was he hit the tyre wall 
at pretty much full speed, ripping away the tyre wall and breaking the armco 
barrier behind, one of the worst wrecks I have seen. The front of the 
chassis was twisted about a foot to the right, with various tubes detached 
from each other. The rescue boys said it was a miracle that he didn't need 
cut out, in fact he hopped out as soon as the car stopped flying. All the 
driver needed was an instant inhalation of nicotine!!, the car needed a big bin.
The small Ray team worked flat out, and by Friday morning and the start of 
official qualifying, a new chassis had been built and the old mechanicals 
bolted on. Although off his previous pace by about 0.5 seconds Charsley 
still made the final and received a trophy for being the highest placed 
English driver(18th).

Read in detail about the semis elsewhere, all I can say was that Bas 
LEINDERS(Van Diemen 94) was the fastest qualifier on a slightly damp track, 
what happened to him then?, oops another black hole in memory. FIRMIN was 
leading his semi, albeit under a bit of pressure of course, when he went off 
course, missed his braking, wheech... straight into tyre wall, exit one 
dejected spotty youth. (Warning to young drivers with established reputation 
- the Festival can be a lottery)
 
The last chance sprint was over 5 laps for all those that had made it to the 
flag in the semis but had not qualified. Won by Cyrillle SAUVAGE(Swift 94).

The final was a very clean 20 lap race, thankfully no stoppages since 
darkness was fast approaching. The bald fact is that Jason WATT (Vector 94) 
won. However, he was not the fastest, the fastest lap went to Geoffrey 
HORION(Van Diemen 94) and it was he who pushed WATT for most of the race, 
usually no more than 1/2 a cars length behind. Watt was extremely cool under 
pressure and never deviated from the racing line. In the earlier laps 
pressure came from Guy SMITH(Vector 94) and Bas LEINDERS(Van Deimen 94). 
Smith ran out of road and nearly out of gravel trap at Paddock bend, 
Leinders also disappeared early on, why or where I do not know.
 The battle between Watt and Horion allowed Jonny KANE(Swift 94) to edge 
closer as the race progressed through the middle laps and by about lap 15 
Kane was up with them. With 2 laps to go he got past Horion, could he now 
pass Watt, whilst coping with Horion inspecting his gearbox. Watt reacted to 
Kane exactly as he had to Horion, driving the perfect line with no mistakes, 
and you just can't pass someone driving like that. Meanwhile back in 3rd 
Horion was fired up to regain the second place that had been his for so many 
laps and on the last corner of the last lap he made the move that he just 
had to try, SCREEEEECH.... right in front of me Horion's nose makes contact 
with Kane's wheel, and it's Horion that spins onto the grass, he recovers 
instantly, but in F Ford that means forever, and he drops to about 6th or 
so. 3rd place is inherited by a jubilant Vincent VOSSE(Van Diemen 94), who 
had been about 6 lengths behind the lead battle and not under any particular 
pressure.

 Jason Watt was therefore a deserving winner, and this guy is great too. Not 
only has he the natural ability to talk intelligently, he can be extremely 
humourous. When asked on Friday evening which women he finds attractive he 
replied immediatly that Roseanne Barr was the woman of his dreams. This 
driver will be a sponsor's dream as well as being a damn fast and 
intelligent driver - thanks go to the Foundation Team for bringing this guy 
to our attention.


                                 - Al - 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Alasdair HEADS     *      (be flameproof in Orange Proban)
  Tissue Typing Lab  *       security is 3 tiers of armco
  UMDS               *     reassurance is a thick tyre wall
  Guys Hospital      * but gravel traps are a bugger to run across
  LONDON             *   I believe any opinion expressed is mine
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

    �Ford fanatics
    
    You won't find many of those in here :-)
    
    Royston
    (OK so its taken out of context)

    NOT TRUE!!
    
    	We have two RH02 PRS', just sold a Citation Z16, just bought
    	a '92 VanDiemen.  Have the track record in one of the PRS' at
    	New Hamphire International Speedway (that's the U.S. side of the 
    	pond), and wrapped up regional championships in that PRS last year
    	and wrapped up the same this year in the Citation.  
    
    All that's not counting an Elva Courier, (but that's a different topic)
    
    	Barb
    

    I was there for the Saturday and it made me sad as this is the first
    year in five that I was not competing. Anyway its never been as good
    since they introduced ZETEC.
    
    I also have a PRS RH02 and it is now for sale with rebuilt motor for
    3500 pounds. Any takers??
    
    Kevin Williams  7781 1974
    

Article 622 of rec.autos.sport.misc:
From: [email protected] (Alasdair Heads)

Correction to my earlier ramblings courtesy of Motoring News

FF1600  1st - Gavin WILLS
        2nd - Alastair WESTON
        3rd - Jan NEUMANN

FF1800
 Bas LEINDERS did not make the grid for the final after being excluded for 
fuel irregularities in his semi. Where I mention LEINDERS in the final, it 
should be Soheil AYARI. This was the driver tussling with Guy SMITH, and the 
reason that SMITH ran wide was contact with AYARI, resulting in AYARI's 
retirement.

Abject apologies to all for these errors, but my intention was to give an 
IMPRESSION of the event, most of you will read official results in the press 
at a later date anyway.


                                - AL - 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Alasdair HEADS     *      (be flameproof in Orange Proban)
  Tissue Typing Lab  *       security is 3 tiers of armco
  UMDS               *     reassurance is a thick tyre wall
  Guys Hospital      * but gravel traps are a bugger to run across
  LONDON             *   I believe any opinion expressed is mine
----------------------------------------------------------------------------