Murray triumphs in FFord Festival heat four delayed by pre-race crash

Photo: Ida Wood

Nial Murray was the winner in the fourth Formula Ford Festival heat, which featured a pre-race crash.

Oldfield Motorsport driver Ben Cochran, who had qualfied fourth, crashed on the formation lap heading up the hill to Druids and red flags waved while his car was recovered.

Once it was, he was able to make his way to the pit straight and joined the field for two more formation laps before starting where he had been scheduled to.

Murray did not make the best launch, but was helped by Team DDR’s Ronan Doherty being very slow out of his box in second.

Swift Cooper tried squeezing down Doherty’s inside, and the Brands Hatch debutant moved to the outside at Paddock Hill Bend so the door was open for Cooper to get ahead.

Doherty then took to the slippery runoff beyond the kerbs, allowing Cochran through on the inside. At almost the same time, Cooper locked up and Cochran nosed into him from behind into Druids, but it tultimately led to no changes of position.

However Doherty then visited more runoff down to Graham Hill Bend and Cochran went past. They almost made contact into Druids on lap two as Doherty sought space on the inside that was not there, and their squabbling allowed the top two to pull away.

Murray, not feeling confident in battle but also not needing to test those skills as he charged off ahead, won the 10-lap race by 5.962 seconds over Cooper who was compromised heavily by lapped traffic “in the worst places possible” late on.

Doherty reclaimed third into Druids on lap three, but again almost went sideways after using the Graham Hill Bend runoff, and was initially two seconds behind Cooper.

Once he was in his tow, he was able to rapidly close in and on the final lap Cooper had to defend from Doherty while also trying to clear a lapped car as they approached the chequered flag.

Cohran finished fifth, and Ammonite Motorsport’s Anthony Amato was sixth after shaking off TM Racing’s Tom Hawkins and Don Hardman Racing’s Abdul Ahmed who he had been in a group with for several laps.

There were two incidents that did not prove too disruptive to proceedings, with Sigbjorn Maehlum crashing out and Oliver Buckton spinning off but being able to rejoin.

Heat 4 results (10 laps)