Home News Josh Fisher fends off Rory Smith for Walter Hayes heat four win

Josh Fisher fends off Rory Smith for Walter Hayes heat four win

by Ida Wood

Photo: Ida Wood

Josh Fisher led home Rory Smith in a race-long battle for victory in heat four of the Walter Hayes Trophy on Silverstone’s National layout.

B-M Racing’s Smith started from pole and he led the first lap as cars went three-wide in places. The frantic action continued into the next few laps, and Wayne Poole Racing’s Fisher emerged as leader while Smith was briefly shuffled down to fourth before sticking with Fisher and Ben Mitchell to form a three-car battle for the win.

The gap between Fisher and his chasing team-mate Mitchell was less than two tenths of a second for several laps, and the only time he got a little bit of clean air was when Smith passed Mitchell for second on the last lap.

However the strength of the slipstream meant he was right behind Fisher at the finish, and Mitchell was only 0.712s back in third.

Ian Campbell was a lonely fourth, while Oldfield Motorsport’s Ian Gough dropped back to finish a distant fifth and had to get side-by-side with Graham Brunton Racing’s Michael Gray to hold onto the position.

Gray’s team-mate Derek Palmer Jr had an incident on the third lap that sent him down to 20th, and he couldn’t recover which meant he currently misses out on a semi-final spot.

Race results (8 laps)

Pos Driver Team Time
1 Josh Fisher Wayne Poole Racing 8m20.395s
2 Rory Smith B-M Racing +0.293s
3 Ben Mitchell Wayne Poole Racing +0.712s
4 Ian Campbell Vertical Racing +3.870s
5 Ian Gough Oldfield Motorsport +8.996s
6 Michael Gray Graham Brunton Racing +9.128s
7 Jordan Harrison Shaws Motorsport +13.381s
8 Benn Tilley Simon Hadfield Motorsport +13.792s
9 Ben Tinkler +13.874s
10 Nigel Dolan B-M Racing +14.170s
11 Joe Watts Team Fox Racing +14.421s
12 James Hadfield B-M Racing +15.098s
13 Vincent Jay TM Racing +18.215s
14 Mario Sarchet UCLan +20.584s
15 Patrick McKenna GT Motorsport +21.176s
16 Joe Porter Porter Motorsport +21.210s
17 Mark McKenna GT Motorsport +31.373s
18 David Porter Porter Motorsport +35.318s
19 Neil Hunt +38.456s
20 Derek Palmer Jr Graham Brunton Racing +42.098s
21 Ian Fernihough +49.916s
22 Iain Rowley +53.971s
23 Sam Tompkins +56.336s
24 James Maitland-Cook Classic Team Merlyn +1 lap
Ret Felix Fisher TM Racing
DNS Richard Tarling Enigma Motorsport
Fastest lap: Fisher, 1m01.901s