Murray marks FFord Festival return with heat four pole

Photo: Ida Wood

Team Dolan’s Niall Murray marked his return to the Formula Ford Festival with pole for the fourth heat race.

Murray had looked particularly slidey out of Graham Hill Bend during testing, often going across the extended tarmac runoff, and he had one lap deleted during heat four qualifying.

The first driver to the top was Team DDR’s reigning Northern Irish FF1600 champion Ronan Doherty, with a 52.081s lap.

Murray did not post his first flying lap until three minutes in, but it put him straight to the top. His 51.015s was 0.249 seconds faster than Luke Cooper’s second effort, but Cooper then took provisional pole with his third flyer.

He claimed first place by 0.152s, then Doherty crossed the line and went a further 0.184s faster than him.

There was a wait of another minute before Murray’s next lap was completed, but he lowered the pace to 50.446s.

Moments later, Cooper improved to 50.799s in third. Ammonite Motorsport’s Anthony Amato went fourth fastest with four minutes to go, as Murray’s fourth lap grew his advantage at the top to 0.256s.

The next change to the top six came in the final three minutes, as Oldfield Motorsport’s Ben Cochran posted a 50.678s to jump up to second. But the gap between first and second had grown again, as Murray set a new 50.367s benchmark.

He found further pace with two minutes to go, moving the time to beat to 50.225s, and Doherty responded with an improvement that put him into second and 0.327s behind Murray.

But with 68s remaining, the imperious Murray went faster again with a 50.133s to secure pole. The heat will be his first race in Britain since the 2023 FFord Festival.

There were few personal bests set after Murray’s pole lap, although Cooper took third from Cochran with seconds to spare by a margin of 0.064s.

After the chequered flag, Amato and TM Racing’s Tom Hawkins improved but they remained fifth and sixth.

Heat 4 qualifying results