Kevin Mills Racing’s Jordan Dempsey joined the United Formula Ford grid on Saturday to contest the two Champion of Brands races, and ended up winning both.
As BRSCC National FF1600 is visiting Brands Hatch later in August, Dempsey was one of several drivers from that series to attend United FFord’s round as warm-up. He took pole in qualifying by 0.329 seconds ahead of Oldfield Motorsport’s Lucas Romanek and converted that into victory in the opening race.
Dempsey pulled away by 0.756 seconds on the race’s first lap, as Colin Queen passed Morgan Quinn for third, but the safety car was then summoned after Ian Jeary and John Whitbourn got into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend.
Racing resumed on lap six and Dempsey again got the jump from Romanek, who was passed by Queen down inside of Paddock Hill on the next lap. Shortly after, Richard Mendoza spun at the same corner and the safety car was required again.
The second restart was on lap 11, and Dempsey asserted control again. He pulled out a 2.161s lead over Queen in the last eight laps to win the Peter Rogers Trophy.
“Happy with my restarts. Every time I was like ‘oh god, another one’,” Dempsey said. “There was a little bit of the traffic at the end, but to be fair to all the lads today they got out of the way and made it easier.”
Romanek came under pressure from Quinn until the latter had a brief issue that dropped him behind Queen’s Ammonite Motorsport team-mate Shawn Rashid. In the last laps Quinn dropped even more places and eventually finished eighth, behind heritage class winner Matt Rivett, Team Dolan’s Gabe Tesch and Ben Cox.
Ammonite’s Andre Lafond had been in the top six battle until an issue caused him to retire, while Jonathan Barnes’ car failed to make the start.
Rivett was a non-starter for race two due to driveshaft failure, and Dempsey won by 4.514s to become a two-time champion of Brands in a day.
Queen was second throughout, while Quinn went from eighth to third. He made his way through an intense battle of Romanek trying to pass Rashid after he passed him for third on lap one, clearing Romanek himself on lap seven and then taking Rashid nine laps later. At one point he almost made contact with Rashid, who put up strong defences.
Romanek got back ahead of Rashid a lap later, but an error meant his progress was undone and he then lost fifth to 22nd-placed starter Lafond. Way behind, Adam Quartermaine pipped Tesch to seventh by 0.069s.
Queen has moved ahead of Quinn in the United FFord points, and Rivett hasn’t lost too much ground in his Van Diemen RF91 despite missing race two.
Results round-up
Peter Rogers Trophy (18 laps)
1 Jordan Dempsey Kevin Mills Racing 20m10.728s
2 Colin Queen Ammonite Motorsport +2.161s
3 Lucas Romanek Oldfield Motorsport +2.779s
4 Shawn Rashid Ammonite Motorsport +5.185s
5 Matt Rivett Enigma Motorsport +12.393s
6 Gabe Tesch Team Dolan +15.181s
7 Ben Cox Souley Motorsport +15.742s
8 Morgan Quinn Team Dolan +16.997s
9 Chris Goodwin PA Motorsport +17.202s
10 Ben Tinkler privateer +17.923s
Pole: Dempsey, 49.519s
Fastest lap: Dempsey, 49.847s
Race 2 (24 laps)
1 Dempsey 20m12.617s
2 Queen +4.514s
3 Quinn +20.495s
4 Rashid +23.131s
5 Lafond +23.330s
6 Romanek +23.798s
7 Quartermaine +37.517s
8 Tesch +37.586s
9 Cox +38.875s
10 Goodwin +44.648s
FL: Dempsey, 49.988s
Championship standings
1 Queen 26 2 Quinn 23 3 Rivett 22 4 Romanek 18 5 Lafond 17 6 Dempsey 14 7 David Porter 13 8 James Hadfield 12 9 Chris Acton 12 10 Paul Mason, Bob Higgins, Simon Davey, Mike Gardner & Adam Fathers 10