BRSCC Formula Ford 1600 Race Report ROCKING THE …brsccff1600.co.uk/Files/National FF...

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BRSCCFormula Ford 1600Race ReportSeason 2016 - Issue 5: Rockingham Int’al Super Sportscar Long Circuit, 11th June

Dazzling DoubleFor Raven

Pre90:BrilliantBeaver!

CONTENTS

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BRSCC Formula Ford 1600: Race Report - Rockingham Int’al Super Sportscar Long, 11th June

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Meeting Type: Double HeaderCircuit: Rockingham International

Super Sportscar LongCircuit Length: 2.05 miles

National Championship: Rounds 7 & 8

Championship Organisers: BRSCCSponsored by Avon Tyres

BRSCC FF1600 Championship Co-ordinators:Ian Smith (07939 107888)Lester Forbes (07415 094110)

Words & Editing:Dave Williamswww.gramtext.co.uk

Copyright on Pictures:Bourne Photographicwww.bournephotographic.co.ukLester Forbeswww.lesterforbes.co.uk

Coming Up:25th June - Oulton ParkNorthern Championship: Round 49th & 10th July - Brands HatchNational Championship: Rounds 9 & 10

Data & Credits

IntroductionQualifyingFaces of FF1600Race 1Race 2Trophy Presentations

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Introduction


Having visited Zandvoort a month earlier, the Avon Tyres National Formula Ford 1600 Championship was once again on unfamiliar ground as it headed to Rockingham where the exuberantly titled International Super Sportscar Long Circuit was being utilised.This incorporated a section of the Indycar-standard oval track which was very appropriate given that the winner of the National series will be eligible to take part in the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca this December.Thanks to the support of OBP Motorsport, the two Formula Ford 1600 races at Rockingham plus the next rounds of the National Championship at Brands Hatch will be broadcast on the BRSCC’s YouTube channel and, possibly, also Motors TV.

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Qualifying

The uniqueness of the circuit, including the unusual texture of the tarmac, meant a set up was required that was completely different to any other track. Some also found the anti-clockwise direction of travel – with the higher than usual proportion of left handers – tricky to come to terms with.One person who certainly enjoyed Rockingham was James Raven who quickly got to grips with the venue and put his Cliff Dempsey Ray GR15/16 on pole position.It was a close run thing as the best lap by Patrik Pasma was only 0.062 secs slower. This was a mightily impressive performance by the 16 year old Finn who had his first ever car race just two months earlier. Had he been able to get a tow then it would have been likely that he could have taken fastest time in his Mygale SJ08 but given his lack of experience and the fact that he was driving an unproven car, he and his team were delighted that he would be starting from the outside of the front row.Third fastest was Chase Owen in the other Cliff Dempsey Racing entry. His Ray GR14/15 was resplendent in a new livery and the team was delighted to have two cars in the Top 3. Although based close to Rockingham, this was the first time they had competed in Formula Ford 1600 at their local venue.Joining Owen on the second row was Championship leader Niall Murray. During pre-event testing the Irishman had initially been a second off the pace but the Bernard Dolan Motorsport crew changed everything on the Van Diemen RF99 and by the time

16 year old Patrik Pasma missed out on pole by fractions of a second



WONDER KID!

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James Roe was getting closer to the front in Ralph Firman’s latest design

qualifying came along Murray was only 0.344 secs from pole.These 4 appeared to have the best understanding of what was required to get the most speed from the circuit as there was a half second gap to fifth placed Chris Middlehurst. His Van Diemen LA10 was just over a tenth faster than James Roe’s RFR RFFF16. The Irishman was getting closer to the sharp end in Ralph Firman’s latest chassis design.Jordan Dempsey (Van Diemen RF00) continued to progress up his learning curve by being seventh quickest while the Top Ten was completed by 3 cars fielded by B-M Racing. In ninth, Matt Cowley recorded his best qualifying performance of the season. His Van Diemen JL13 would be sandwiched on the grid between the LA10 models of the two brothers Tom and David McArthur. The former was the fastest of this trio having found a second since testing.The quickest Pre90 car, the Reynard 84FF of Jamie Jardine, would line-up twelfth. Jamie had a great deal of confidence that he would add to his tally of class wins.



Tom McArthur went 1 second faster than in testing

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Results



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FACES OF FF1600



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Race 1

In the previous two rounds at Zandvoort, having qualified on pole, Niall Murray lost places when the red lights went out due to poor getaways. He had clearly resolved those issues at Rockingham as, despite starting from fourth, he found much more traction than any of those around him to immediately take the lead.In fact, there was lots going on at the first corner. Jordan Dempsey replicated an accident from the Indy 500 when he lost control and hit the concrete wall hard. While he was OK, his car was too badly damaged for him to take part in the second race later in the day.Jamie Jardine had been upbeat about the race having set the Pre90 “pole” on the combined grid but it all went wrong when the field reached the Deene Hairpin. He ran wide and had a very bumpy ride across the grass. He rejoined with a battered car, 4 or 5 places from the rear.Back at the front, the two leaders, Murray and Raven, were pulling away from third placed Pasma. The latter was holding his own in a quality field although struggling to get his tyres up to temperature and, before long, yielded third to Chase Owen.At the end of lap 2, Raven was able to get good drive exiting the final corner and overtook Murray at the start of the following lap. Over the next few circuits, it remained very close although Raven did manage to pull out a small gap of just over half a second. This was wiped out on lap 6 when the Safety Car appeared because the studs that were holding the left rear wheel onto Daniel O’Beirne’s Swift SC95 all sheared at the same time leaving him stranded in a vulnerable location.With George McDonald retiring to the pit-lane at the end of lap 1 due to an engine

Race 1 winner James Raven was uncatchable



JOY FORJAMES

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problem in his Swift SC92F, O’Beirne was the only remaining car in Class B and had just begun to establish a gap to the group of cars he had been battling with when he found himself with only 3 wheels on his wagon.After two circuits under yellow, racing resumed with Raven holding on to take his second victory of the season less than a second ahead of Murray with Owen completing the podium.Behind Pasma, Tom McArthur was delighted with a fifth place finish from eighth on the grid especially as a poor start had seen him initially drop out of the Top Ten. Tom immediately regained the lost positions with an “epic lunge” at Turn 2. In the closing stages, he was joined in the fight for fifth by Chris Middlehurst and James Roe - it was a real thriller. Eventually, things got out of hand when the latter pair got a little too close and made contact on the final lap.This duo’s unplanned early exit promoted Tom’s brother, David, up to sixth. Matt Cowley would have taken that position but ran wide to avoid contact when Roe overtook him shortly after the Safety Car period ended. This dropped him a few places but he recovered and crossed the line just 3 tenths behind D. McArthur.The chain of cars O’Beirne was heading before saying goodbye to his wheel eventually became a squabble for eighth. This comprised three Van Diemens which were driven by Henry Chant (RF02), James Scott-Murphy (JL16) and Jack Wolfenden (JL013K). Oldfield Motorsport were delighted with the performance of their charge, Scott-Murphy, at such an early point in his car racing career.After Jardine’s rallycrossing exploits on the opening tour, Michael Beaver was the Pre90 leader in his Mondiale M89S. The Irish built car has brilliant traction off the line and, with 6,200 rpm on the dial, Beaver left the grid looking like he was driving a car from a higher Formula. A great start was desperately needed as, having fitted new brake pads at the end of Friday’s test day, the brake balance was wrong during qualifying therefore his grid position didn’t correspond to his car’s underlying speed. A



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Chase Owen sported a new livery at Rockingham

change of rear dampers and increased camber at the back gave greater grip on the banking so that his car was a real rocketship in this race.Beaver finished just a couple of seconds behind Wolfenden having tagged on to the back of this gaggle for much of the 20 minutes. His nearest challenger both overall and in the Pre90 Class was Ben Tinkler but at the start of the final lap he was behind the recovering Jardine who had found gaining places a frustrating business as he had great speed in the corners but no pace on the straights.At the Deene Hairpin, Tinkler braked later than late to take the place back but this compromised his speed down to the next right hander, Yentwood. He took a defensive line but Jardine still tried to make the pass. The pair collided with Jardine coming to rest stranded in the gravel. Tinkler was pushed into a spin but got going again to take the penultimate finishing position. Jardine later admitted that the gap he went for just wasn’t there.Their tribulations promoted Adam Quartermaine up to twelfth. He was having his first outing of the season in his Van Diemen RF99 and enjoyed a fun race with Vincent Jay (Ray GR08) who finished one place behind.Middlehurst recovered from the spin triggered by Roe to take fourteenth ahead of Nigel Thompson who was making his Post89 debut in Oldfield Motorsport’s Van Diemen DP08. Ian Wolfenden (Reynard 87FF), Nick Barnes (Van Diemen RF87) and Iain Houston (Van Diemen RF89) completed the finishers.Houston had never visited Rockingham before and was very impressed by the facilities – especially the huge grandstands. Since his crash at Zandvoort, URS had provided a new engine cover. To get the part up to the B-M Racing workshops in Wakefield, Iain had to make a 620 mile journey from his home in Ross-on-Wye to B-M Racing via URS in Norfolk but, with no hold ups, he really enjoyed this road trip… and the repaired car looked splendid.Unfortunately, once out onto the circuit he became a very frustrated racing driver as he couldn’t get below 1 minute 40 which was about 4 seconds away from the pace of the Pre90 front-runners. In this race he had the consolation of the Safety Car period preventing him from being lapped.



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Nigel Thompson (11) leads Adam Quartermaine (44) and Vincent Jay (48)

Results



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Race 2

At the start there was another blinding getaway from Niall Murray and, with the grid set according to the race 1 finishing positions, he we starting from the outside of the front row so there was no question of him taking the lead.Although the Bernard Dolan Motorsport squad continued to improve Murray’s car, Raven still appeared to have a little more pace. In a repeat of what happened earlier in the day, Raven found more speed the second time the duo exited the final corner and was able to get ahead as lap 3 got underway.He established a similar advantage to the one he had in the first encounter but to his annoyance the Safety Car came out once more – although this time it appeared a lap later than in race 1. The reason for its appearance was because of an incident involving Matt Cowley and Henry Chant. The former had changed his set up between races but unfortunately this proved to be a retrograde step which slowed him down.Once again, after the race went back to green, Raven was able to ease away to take his second win of the day.Despite starting from fourteenth, Chris Middlehurst was in the top 5 at the end of the fifth circuit. Here he became involved in a marvellous battle for fourth with Chase Owen plus Tom and David McArthur.In the early stages, T. McArthur ran as high as third after a stellar start until Patrik Pasma got ahead of him on lap 3. The latter’s mechanics had tweaked his car so that his tyres took less time to reach working temperature. After the Safety Car period, he was able to take second from Murray to record another very impressive result. Owen had great place in the closing stages and was able to demote T. McArthur, Middlehurst and Murray to take the final place on the podium.

James Raven (23) takes the lead from Niall Murray (5) with a move replayed from race 1



RAVEN REPLAYED

David McArthur was classified seventh while the next car home was the Pre90 winner Michael Beaver. He made an even better start this time and, having added some front camber to cure the understeer he experienced in the first race because he had increased the rear camber, his car was just about perfect. A finish comfortably in the Top Ten overall was certainly well deserved.There was no challenge for Pre90 honours from Jamie Jardine as his charge from the back of the grid was blunted after contact with Vincent Jay caused severe damage to his car. Jardine kept going and came home as the middle car in a 3-way battle for ninth. This was won by Adam Quartermaine with Jack Wolfenden at the back of this trio.Ben Tinkler was in a similar situation to Jardine in that he just set out to gain as many places as possible from the back of the grid. He had a good battle in the early stages with Ian Wolfenden and Nick Barnes before demoting Nigel Thompson to be classified in twelfth.Barnes and Wolfenden were still as one at the finish when they came home in fourteenth and fifteenth respectively.Behind Vincent Jay and James Scott-Murphy, there was more frustration for eighteenth placed Iain Houston who still couldn’t find the pace he wished for.Another having a day to forget was George McDonald. After race 1, he had discovered a broken spring in his carburettor which would have made his engine to run too rich. He thought that was the cause of the engine problem which had led him to retire from that contest but, to make certain, he also changed the coil and checked all of the electrics. However, at the start of race 2, the problem was still there. George immediately headed to the pits to make sure that everything had been refitted correctly after the checks he made between the two events. With all the dials on his dashboard displaying the information he expected, he rejoined the track. Much to his consternation, the problem mysteriously disappeared with two laps to go. In the absence of Daniel O’Beirne, McDonald had the consolation of winning Class B.



Chris Middlehurst was soon running in the Top 5 despite starting from fourteenth

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Results



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TROPHYPRESENTATIONS

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