Peter Daly seals semi-final spot with FFord Festival progression race win

Photo: Ida Wood

BRSCC chairman Peter Daly secured his spot in the Formula Ford Festival semi-finals by winning the second progression race.

Oliver Chapman, having finished 13th in heat three, started on pole ahead of Shaws Motorsport team-mate Colin Williams, Daly, Auto Haeckel Motorsport’s Klaus-Dieter Haeckel, Graham Brunton Racing’s Calum Dunbar and Supercars team boss John Blanchard.

Despite appearing to struggle to get into gear when the lights went out, Chapman comfortably led the field into the opening corner.

Haeckel initially threatend Daly through Paddock Hill Bend, but Daly moved to the inside heading down the hill and after Williams took too much kerb at Surtees he had Daly in his tow.

Daly tucked out of it fairly late down the pit straight and was ahead by 0.086 seconds as lap two began. On the outside line into Paddock Hill Bend he was able to make the move stick, then rapidly reduced Chapman’s lead by a second to sit 0.757s behind going into lap three.

Haeckel was now third, with Vincent Jay (from eighth on the grid), Blanchard and Ben Turner occupying the other three places that granted semi-final spots.

A train of cars fighting over fifth formed, and they were almost four-wide exiting Druids at one point, but the double-waved yellow flags where Williams had crashed reduced overtaking opportunities.

The drivers at the front of that train exited contention at Clearways on lap five, with Turner’s attempt to pass Blanchard on the inside resulting in contact, both spinning and a broken front-right wheel for Blanchard.

Dunbar inherited fifth ahead of AC Racing’s Andy Charsley, who had put in a stellar drive to charge up from 19th as he had started last on the grid.

Daly ended the lap with another super late pass, exiting Chapman’s tow and edging ahead by 0.01s for a lead he would hold onto.

The top two sought to work together, as team-mates in the large Shaws outfit this weekend, but Chapman still had a got at reclaiming the lead around the outside of Paddock Hill Bend on lap nine of 10 then into Surtees on the final lap.

Dunbar, Charsley and TM’s Bob Hawkins closed in on Haeckel and Jay in the race’s second half, setting up a dramatic last two laps.

The first attempted pass was by Dunbar into Paddock Hill Bend on lap nine, but Charsley had the better exit and would have got alongside had Dunbar not moved across and forced Charsley onto the grass going back up the hill. Hawkins then tried going around Charsley’s outside around Druids.

Next time by Charsley got ahead of Dunbar through Paddock Hill Bend, then forced Jay into defence approaching Druids. He got alongside at the finish, and they were split by less than 0.001s.

Jay was classified fourth, and after soaking up pressure from Hawkins the final semi-final spot went to Dunbar in sixth.

Progression race 2 results (10 laps)