Quinn pips Nippers to FFord Festival heat one pole by 0.003s

Photo: Ida Wood

The battle for pole in qualifying for the first Formula Ford Festival heat was decided by 0.003 seconds in Morgan Quinn’s favour.

It was Ammonite Motorsport’s Hugh Esterson who was on top after the first flying laps were set, posting a 51.847s that put him 0.167 seconds ahead of privateer and United FFord runner-up Tom Nippers.

Oldfield Motorsport’s Spencer Shinner was third, and Team DDR’s David McCullough was fourth.

The next laps came three minutes into the 10-minute session, and Nippers lowered the pace to 51.258s. Esterson was just 0.127s behind him, Shinners remained third and Souley Motorsport’s Oliver Roberts improved to fourth but was 1.338s off the pace.

Almost everybody set personal bests on their next efforts, and Nippers remained on top with a 50.779s.

Esterson was just 0.028s shy of that, with Shinner and McCullough trailing by 0.304s and 0.942s. Roberts, in his 36-year-old Van Diemen RF89, improved in fifth.

Team Dolan’s Quinn was shuffled down to sixth, but when he completed his third flying lap he got within 0.127s of pole and it began to look like a three-way fight with six minutes to go.

Pirate M-Sports’ Joey Foster left it even later to put his time on the board, and he demoted McCullough to sixth.

Nippers found a gain of 0.11s next time by, with Shinner having an even smaller improvement of 0.027s in fourth.

Esterson, Quinn and Foster did not get any faster, but on the following lap Esterson did to trim Nippers’ advantage to 0.152s. Shinner again made a marginal improvement but did not improve his position.

Outisde of a tow and later than his rivals to cross the line, Foster went second fastest with four minutes to go and got within 0.042s of Nippers, while Quinn was just 0.006s behind him in third.

Nippers responded, setting a new 50.372s benchmark, which Quinn got within 0.124s of. Shinner found more pace, but was now 0.424s back in fifth.

The session changed direction with three minutes to go, as Nippers failed to improve. When Quinn completed his seventh flying lap, he took over top spot by 0.028s.

There was no responsed from Nippers this time, and the next improvements came in the final 15 seconds.

Nippers set a 50.347s, 0.003s off Quinn’s pace, and Foster improved in third to be 0.147s off pole. Esterson, Shinner, McCullough and 15-year-old rookie Storm Gjerdrum were also within a second of Quinn.

Birk Larsen, another Scandinavian teenager, struck trouble and failed to set any flying laps.

Heat 1 qualifying results