Photo: Ammonite Motorsport
Lydden Hill, better known as a rallycross track, hosted round three of the United Formula Ford season on Saturday.
Jason Smyth led a Team Dolan one-two in qualifying, setting a 49.402s to lead Morgan Quinn by 0.321 seconds. Ammonite Motorsport’s impressive debutants Connor Willis and Caleb Gafrarar were 0.43s and 0.592s behind in third and fourth, then PWR1 Racing’s Jason Pribyl completed a top five covered by 0.7s.
Quinn fell to ninth on the opening lap of race one, as Smyth opened up a 0.626s lead over Gafrarar. Pribyl was third, and John Racing Team’s Pascal Monbaron slotted into fourth.
Gafrarar set the fastest lap next time by to reduce Smyth’s gap to 0.457s, but the leader responded on lap three with an even faster lap to bring it back up to 0.562s. It was soon down to 0.4s again, then to 0.254s but that was the closest Gafrarar would get.
The lead stabilised at around 0.33s until lap 11 when Smyth encountered some oil on the track which led to him sliding off into the tyre barriers. That left Gafrarar with a 3.1s lead over Pribyl, but then the safety car came out on lap 13.
Racing resumed on lap 17 and Gafrarar immediately escaped his pursuers. He finished 2.143s ahead of Pribyl, with Mann Motorsport’s Charlie Mann in third after he passed Monbaron on lap 20 of 22.
Quinn got all the way back up to fourth, passing John Svensson (JRT) on lap two, overtaking Ben Cox (Oldfield Motorsport) on lap 17 and then on the penultimate lap clearing Willis and Monbaron as the latter fell to eighth.
Race one’s results set race two’s grid, and there was lap one drama. Pribyl took the lead ahead of Quinn, and Gafrarar went from pole position down to eighth.
He and Smyth, who started 17th, then went on a charge as the top two fought their own race up front. Quinn set the fastest lap a few times early on but Pribyl then pulled away and was 1.114s clear after lap eight. He was pulled back in following that, with Quinn finishing the 27-lap race 0.271s behind.
Smyth got up to 11th on lap one, 10th on lap two then ninth on lap five. He was seventh by lap eight and pursuing Gafrarar, who had passed Willis for sixth on lap six.
Gafrarar lost out to Smyth on lap 10, and on lap 12 the latter steamed past Cox and Svensson into fourth. Two laps on he had got ahead of Mann too, but the top two were seven seconds up the road so were uncatchable the remaining laps.
Finishing 10.6s behind Smyth in fourth was Gafrarar, who passed Svensson and Cox on laps 13 an 16 respectively, then overtook Mann on lap 24.
Results round-up
Race 1 (22 laps)
1 Caleb Gafrarar Ammonite Motorsport 20m14.036s
2 Jason Pribyl PWR1 Racing +2.143s
3 Charlie Mann Mann Motorsport +3.574s
4 Morgan Quinn Team Dolan +4.324s
5 Connor Willis Ammonite Motorsport +5.288s
6 Ben Cox Oldfield Motorsport +6.489s
7 John Svensson John’s Racing Team +7.132s
8 Pascal Monbaron John’s Racing Team +10.277s
9 Isaac Canto da Silva Team Dolan +13.282s
10 Adam Fathers AF Racing +20.673s
Pole: Smyth, 49.402s
Fastest lap: Gafrarar, 50.180s
Race 2 (27 laps)
1 Pribyl 19m56.644s
2 Quinn +0.271s
3 Jason Smyth Team Dolan +4.394s
4 Gafrarar +15.008s
5 Mann +15.485s
6 Cox +16.483s
7 Svensson +17.058s
8 Willis +18.031s
9 Monbaron +23.159s
10 Canto da Silva +30.229s
FL: Pribyl, 43.732s
Championship standings
1 Quinn 86 2 Pribyl 85 3 Cox 59 4 Lewis Fox 52 5 Smyth 52 6 Mann 47 7 Canto da Silva 39 8 Fathers 35 9 Gafrarar 34 10 Jeremy Fairbairn 30