Photo: FF1600 National
Team Dolan’s Jordan Kelly won the BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 title in last Saturday’s season finale on Silverstone’s National layout.
A grid of 18 cars turned up, with many drivers warming up for November’s Walter Hayes Trophy at the track. Seven drivers were guest entries.
Kelly and his title rival Lucas Romanek led the way in qualifying, with Kelly beating the Oldfield Motorsport driver to pole by 0.029 seconds. Dolan’s Chris Middlehurst was 0.132s behind in third, and factory Ray driver Jeremy Fairbairn was fourth.
Romanek got past Kelly on the opening lap of race one, by just 0.069s, and after six laps was 0.888s clear as Kelly had to keep an eye on Middlehurst behind. But then Kelly started to close in, finishing lap eight 0.06s behind, the next lap 0.059 in arrears and then finally passing Romanek on lap 10 but staying in second as Fairbairn jumped from fourth to first.
On the next lap Kelly got ahead, then Middlehurst went from fourth to second on lap 12. From then on it was a battle between those two for the win, and Kelly triumphed by 0.675s.
Romanek passed Fairbairn for third on lap 14 of 20, and Fairbairn was then relegated to fifth by Oldfield’s racing returnee Josh Smith. They got involved in a proper tussle, dropping them off the back of Romanek, and on the penultimate lap Fairbairn was able to get back ahead.
Smith got the points for fourth place since Fairbairn was a guest entrant, and then got the points for third after drama later in the day.
The provisional race one results set the race two grid, and once again it was a battle between Kelly, Middlehurst and Romanek at the front early on.
Kelly was finally able to shake off his rivals on lap 11, and he was 2.633s clear when on lap 15 the title became all but guarateed as Romanek retired in the pits after contact with Middlehurst (with contact between the pair in the previous race briefly getting Romanek disqualified from that encounter before winning an appeal).
Middlehurst was unable to close in on Kelly in the remaining laps, meaning the champion ended the season with seven wins, while there was a five-car fight for third far behind.
Elliott Budzinski led Fairbairn through the first nine laps, then Smith passed both and Budzinski also dropped behind Fairbairn and Morgan Quinn. Lucas Blakeley joined in, and was sixth by lap 12 as Fairbairn retired with engine failure.
On the next lap Budzinski was back in fourth and leading Blakeley and Smith, then on lap 15 Blakeley was passed by Smith and Quinn with third to eighth covered by 0.892s.
Smith took third on lap 16 and held it to the finish under intense pressure from Budzinski and then Blakeley. Budzinski dropped to seventh behind Jacob Tofts, was back in fifth on the penultimate lap then dropped behind Tofts again on the final lap. Tofts had gone into the final lap behind Michael Moyers, who had an engine failure in pre-event testing, but finished three places ahead of him. Moyers was just 1.579s off the podium in eighth, but was lifted to seventh – with Blakeley inheriting third – as a five-second penalty for track limits abuse was given to Smith.
The final twist came after the race, as Romanek was disqualified from the entire meeting due to an incident that occurred once the drivers had got out of their cars. He is understood to have been given a further punishment, although neither the series or organising club will comment to Formula Scout on the matter. The stewards’ decision promoted Fairbairn to the race one podium.
Results round-up
Race 1 (20 laps)
1 Jordan Kelly Team Dolan 20m49.571s
2 Chris Middlehurst Team Dolan +0.675s
3 Jeremy Fairbairn Ray +5.628s
4 Josh Smith Oldfield Motorsport +5.852s
5 Elliott Budzinski Ammonite Motorsport +8.850s
6 Jacob Tofts KMR Sport +10.957s
7 Michael Moyers Simon Hadfield Motorsport +11.068s
8 Lucas Blakeley KMR Sport +11.113s
9 Morgan Quinn Team Dolan +11.960s
10 Brandon McCaughan Oldfield Motorsport +12.463s
Pole: Kelly, 1m01.397s
Fastest lap: Middlehurst, 1m01.579s
Race 2 (20 laps)
1 Kelly 20m46.866s
2 Middlehurst +4.101s
3 Blakeley +14.109s
4 Tofts +14.235s
5 Budzinski +14.556s
6 Quinn +14.688s
7 Moyers +15.431s
8 Smith +18.852s
9 Lewis Fox Team Fox Racing +21.188s
10 Jack Sullivan Ammonite Motorsport +23.224s
FL: Middlehurst, 1m01.878s
Championship standings
1 Kelly 413 2 Romanek 338 3 McCaughan 310 4 Budzinski 314 5 Quinn 282 6 Nolan Allaer 246 7 Middlehurst 231 8 Blakeley 143 9 Nathan Yu 118 10 Jamie Sharp 114