Photos: Ida Wood
After an amazing drive at the Mexico City GP, there was anticipation that last weekend would be another enjoyable one for the Magnussen family. And it was, for 51-year-old Jan rather than Haas F1 driver Kevin
The Dane made a Formula Ford 1600 return at the Walters Hayes Trophy (WHT) in a Van Diemen RF78 for Mike Gardner’s GT Motorsport outfit, three years after his appearance at the FFord Festival with Low Dempsey Racing.
His car sporting the same Duckhams livery that adorned his winning Van Diemen RF92 from the 1992 Festival, Magnussen’s bid to make the final of the WHT was hampered by a gear-linkage failure in his heat, but it didn’t dampen his enthusiasm for being back in a FFord car.
“I got stuck in first gear – the worst gear! I’m [still] loving everything about this weekend,” he enthused to Formula Scout.
Magnussen’s main focus over the weekend was on trying to fight for victory in the Carl Hamer Trophy, which was open to cars manufactured from 1967 to 1981. He qualified second for its pre-final race, pipped to pole by just 0.003 seconds after Shaws Motorsport’s Andy Gosling set a 1m03.297s lap.
Rick Morris and Joseph Ahrens were third and fourth, with the latter making a very slow start. At Copse, Magnussen went to the inside and he was side-by-side with Gosling as they exited the corner. He squeezed his rival to ensure he was ahead into Maggotts, with Gosling going wide exiting Becketts and losing second to Ahrens.
When they reached Copse again, Ahrens dived down Magnussen’s inside for the lead, but he got back alongside through Maggotts and into Beckketts before tucking in. He then went to the inside at Brooklands, and the outside of the final corner to start lap three just 0.015s behind.
Exiting Copse he appeared to bump draft Ahrens on the run to Maggotts, where Gosling made it three-wide before backing out. Ahrens led through Maggotts but Magnussen found a line through Becketts that enabled him to charge through the corner and take the lead.
Ahrens drew back alongside down the Wellington Straight, and got back ahead around the outside on the braking for Brooklands. Magnussen darted to his inside at the end of the lap and they were split by 0.047s.
The Becketts line and move was repeated by Magnussen, setting up another wheel-to-wheel run down the Wellington Straight. Ahrens had the outside line for Brooklands and the pair ran side-by-side all the way from there to the start-finish line, where Ahrens was clocked as being 0.032s ahead.
For lap five Magnussen went for the inside of Maggotts and had the lead by Becketts, but Ahrens’ straightline speed again brought him alongside. Gosling ventured to join in again, trying the inside at Brooklands on Ahrens before backing out. That denied Ahrens the opportunity to go for Magnussen again, and the Dane led into lap six of eight by 0.051s.
Ahrens slipstreamed past, and Gosling also got on the inside of Magnussen at Copse. But he dived past him from quite far back at Becketts, again using his different line, then ran alongside him down to Brooklands.
He had a constrastingly large margin of 0.263s to make up with two laps to go, but the slipstream effect meant he was right onto Ahrens’ tail after Copse and he tried the inside line at Brooklands for the lead but Ahrens cut him off and they got close to contact. Magnussen then had superior speed out of Luffield, his car’s traction out of the last corner particularly strong and he headed to the outside line.
There was 0.034s between them with one lap to go, and Magnussen thought of making a move at Copse but tucked back in. Gosling ran very wide at Becketts so exited the battle, and Ahrens tried breaking the tow down the Wellington Straight. That strategy failed, and Magnussen looked to the inside at Luffield. He could keep one wheel alongside but a pass on the inside was not possible, then a small slide for Ahrens exiting the final corner meant Magnussen could now draw alongside. He chose the outside, and just missed out on victory by 0.03s.
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“It’s exactly how it was going to be, [fighting] every corner, every lap,” Magnussen said afterwards. “This is exactly what I came for, good experiences like that, super intense racing, wheel to wheel. Fantastic.”
Behind Gosling was Benn Simms, who gained fived places, then FF1600 veteran Rick Morris’s brilliant defensive decision-making at the front of a five-car battle meant he held on to fifth place. He was just 2.856s behind the winner, and 0.728s seperated him and ninth place.
Ahrens and Magnussen’s gap
| L1 | L2 | L3 | L4 | L5 | L6 | L7 | L8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.236s | 0.015s | 0.047s | 0.032s | 0.051s | 0.263s | 0.034s | 0.030s |
Magnussen’s bid for victory in Sunday’s Carl Hamer Trophy final ended on the first lap. He initially made the better start from the inside of the front row to lead into Copse, but Ahrens almost immediately powered back past before the cars reached Maggotts.
His car set up to be quick in the corners, Magnussen was then caught out in the middle of Becketts where he tagged the rear of Ahren’s car, which then snapped sideways before secondary contact sent both drivers into the gravel. Ahrens was able to continue, while Magnussen crawled back to pits and retired.
“I’m not sure what happened,” said Magnussen. “I think he lost it a little bit in the middle and he didn’t go, so I just got into the back of him a tiny bit, it was not a big hit but he [spun] the other way and I was caught on the outside. It’s a shame, not what I was hoping for. I don’t know if we could have won it but we could have been fighting those guys. It’s racing, but it sucks. I did get into him, so it could have been my fault.”
Simms profited from the incident to lead at the end of lap one ahead of McKenna, Mitchell, Wrigley and Fores, while Gosling was another contender to find the gravel.
McKenna challenged Simms into Becketts on lap three, and eventually snatched the lead into Copse after drawing alongside again at the start of the next lap. Simms moved ahead once more on the run to Becketts, but Simms braked later to reclaim the advantage.
Despite resisting a further challenge on the run to Brooklands, Simms was edged to first by McKenna as the cars completed that lap, and as he tried to fight back again on the run to Becketts he was passed by Wrigley who then was later on the brakes into Brooklands to snatch the lead from Simms before Mitchell made it a three-way scrap at the start of lap six.
Simms prevailed to move in front once more ahead of Wrigley as the lead train grew to six cars, with Shortland climbing to third ahead of Mitchell, McKenna and Fores.
As his five pursuers squabbled amongst themselves, Simms remained ahead over the next couple of laps. Shortland eventually managed to edge slightly away in second before closing onto the tail of Simms with three laps to go and tried a move on the outside into Brooklands.
Simms resisted another challenge from Shortland into Copse on the penultimate lap, and as the pair continued to go wheel-to-wheel on the exit, Fores and Wrigley went either side of Shortland who was shuffled to fourth into Becketts.
Fores led the pursuit of Simms heading into the final lap, but the latter was able to hold on to win by 0.068s. Shortland pipped Wrigley to third and Mitchell edged McKenna in a photo finish – the top six separated by just one second.
In the main WHT event, Magnussen overcame his reliability issues to reach the semi-finals, having made it through both the progression and last chance races on Sunday morning, briefly leading the first of those contests before being picked off by drivers in more modern machinery.
WHT organiser James Beckett & Magnussen
“It was a good start, leading on lap one,” he said of the progression race. “I knew there was no need to fight anybody, just let them go and do my own race but I enjoyed leading for a little while.”
After battling Gosling through most of the opening semi-final, Magnussen came home 20th, two places short of reaching the final.
“If we didn’t have [the gear-linkage issue in the heats] maybe I could have made it to the final because I only just missed it by two places,” he reflected. “I would have been at the back of the final against modern cars where I would have had no chance, but then again more laps, I love driving!”
With a smile on his face for most of the weekend, Magnussen is hoping to make a return to the event in the future.
“I’ve loved it, no end. It’s been so cool. It’s been a fun car to drive, the team is fantastic. I’m so thrilled that Mike Gardner set this up for me and gave me the opportunity to come back and have some fun. It’s been so great being part of this. I definitely need to come back and do it all over again.”
Results round-up
Carl Hamer Trophy pre-final (8 laps)
1 Joseph Ahrens Enigma Motorsport 8m44.889s
2 Jan Magnussen GT Motorsport +0.030s
3 Andy Gosling Shaws Motorsport +0.622s
4 Benn Simms Wayne Poole Racing +1.809s
5 Rick Morris Don Hardman Racing +2.856s
6 Mark McKenna Team Dolan +2.893s
7 Sam Mitchell Wayne Poole Racing +3.259s
8 Matthew Wrigley +3.457s
9 Alex Fores Enigma Motorsport +3.584s
10 Jake Shortland Neil Fowler Motorsport +4.838s
Pole: Gosling, 1m03.297s
Fastest lap: McKenna, 1m04.344s
Carl Hamer Trophy final (12 laps)
1 Simms 12m57.744s
2 Fores +0.068s
3 Shortland +0.501s
4 Wrigley +0.592s
5 Mitchell +1.046s
6 McKenna +1.084s
7 Cal Bennett Nemesis Racing +8.296s
8 Luke McShane Luke McShane Racing +30.376s
9 Damian Ditchfield +30.723s
10 Dominic Sheppard Martin Stretton Racing +31.005s
FL: Fores, 1m03.685s