Raven wins amongst Brands Festival drama

James Raven took his Ray GR13/14 to victory lane in the 2014 Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival with a stunning drive in the final, after starting in sixth place.

Two Festival favourites, Wayne Boyd and Neville Smyth were eliminated in the second Semi-Final due to no fault of their own. Boyd was leading heading out of Paddock Hill Bend when on the second lap when the rear damper broke causing the Van Diemen to spin into retirement. Smyth then took the battle to Jonathan McMullan (Ray) for the lead when his front right wheel overtook him heading into Paddock on the eleventh lap throwing his Ray into the gravel.

” His front right wheel overtook him heading into Paddock…”

USA scholarship driver Aaron Telitz (Ray) had won all of his races in the UK heading into the Final but started alongside McMullan and fell behind him in the opening stages. Telitz dared a move around the outside of Paddock on lap four and he spun into the gravel. Later that lap, Chris Middlehurst’s Mygale engine expired. Both incidents caused the only Safety Car of the race.

McMullan had the charging Raven behind him and wasn’t able to hold off the youngster who jumped to the front on the restart and never looked back which allowed him to claim a six second victory in the prestigious race.

McMullan then managed to hold off the attentions of Stuart Gough (Van Diemen), who just wouldn’t go away for the remainder of the 20 lap race. Their battle enticed Noel Robinson, Pedro Matos and Jake Byrne into the scrap but none of them could find a way past McMullan, who usually races older machinery.

The historic final, for pre-90 cars was dominated by the Mondiale M89F of Ryan Campbell. He beat Ben Tinckler after the disqualification of Michael Thompson. James Hagan was the best pre-82 car, while Matthew Wrigley took pre-72 honours. There was a disappointing number of Zetec and Duratecs in their combined race. Thomas Craincourt won the Duratec final while Julian Hoskins was the victor of the Zetecs.

The opening Fiesta ST was a manic affair with multiple cars spinning on cold tyres at Paddock Hill Bend causing a red flag. The restart saw a massive shunt for Samuel Priest as he was fired into the tyre wall after Paddock which triggered initially a Safety Car, then a red flag. A race result was called with David Ellesley beating David Grady and Daniel Holland. The second race was a calmer matter with Ellesley taking another victory to win the championship. The podium was rounded off by Simon Horrobin and Holland.

The Ford Fiesta class D races were won by Edward Cockhill, who beat Jordan Annells in both races. Pete Daniels was the double victor in class A and Mike Hopper did the same in class B after Ken Bateman was penalised in race one.

Aaron Thompson took a double Fiesta Junior victory with champion Geri Nicosia absent. Thompson was dominant on Saturday with Thomas Grundy beating Michael Higgs to second. Higgs pushed Thompson all the way on Sunday while Grundy retired after contact which allowed Samuel Watkins to finish third.

“The Irish Fiesta Championship provided two extremely close but clean races.”

John Denning led every lap of the opening race but had to work for the victory. He won by a quarter of a second ahead of Philp Lawless, who beat Sean Lillis in a race to the flag. Denning became familiar with the rear of Lillis’ car in race two but Lillis took the race two victory with Denning never falling more than a second back. Lawless won the battle for third after Barry English fell back.

Patrick Sherrington took his MCR to a dominant 15 second victory in the Duratec Sports 2000 race. He beat David Houghton who overhauled poleman Tom Stoten. Chris Snowden beat Michael Gibbins in a tight Pinto race with Clive Steeper in third. Snowdon also took the honours in Saturdays Historic Trophy.