Oldfield’s McCaughan starts National FF1600 season with pole

Photo: Ida Wood

Oldfield Motorsport’s Brandon McCaughan claimed pole for the opening race of the BRSCC National Formula Ford 1600 season at Oulton Park.

McCaughan was fastest from the off, setting a 1m48.594s early on to lead team-mate Lucas Romanek by 0.254 seconds.

On their next laps Romanek had the advantage, a 1m48.081s putting him 0.134s clear of his team-mate while Team Dolan’s Morgan Quinn was 0.181s behind in third.

Romanek failed to improve next time by, while McCaughan set a 1m47.619s and Ammonite Motorsport’s Nolan Allaer set a 1m48.078s to shuffle Romanek down to third.

None of those three improved on their fifth lap of the session, while Team Dolan’s Chris Middlehirst did in fourth, and it was a similar story on the lap after which allowed improvers Quinn, Lucas Blakeley (Kevin Mills Racing) and Middlehurst to go second, third and fourth fastest while Allaer dropped to fifth.

Another improvement from Middlehurst cut the gap to McCaughan down to 0.142s, but in the last minutes he could not find any more pace and his less experienced team-mate Jordan Kelly jumped up to third with a laptime just 0.028s slower than Middlehurst’s.

The order had not changed by the time the chequered flag came out, with McCaughan on pole and with 0.175s covering the top four. Esports star Blakeley qualified fifth for his debut, and Team USA scholar Elliott Budzinski was sixth for Ammonite.

“Really happy with qualifying, the car felt really good. We just got a good lap early, got plenty of clear track so weren’t held up trying to get a tow or anything,” McCaughan said to Formula Scout afterwards.

“[The track conditions] were really good. It was nice and cool, so we were all performing well, good times. Hopefully get a good enough start in race one to keep the lead, and just defend from there. Hopefully make a break.”

Qualifying results