Photo: Ida Wood
Team Dolan’s Morgan Quinn won the United Formula Ford title in the Snetterton season finale.
With many drivers racing in the Castle Combe Racing Club FF1600 championship on Saturday, or saving their cars for the FFord Festival later this month, it meant only eight drivers turned up for Sunday’s action at Snetterton after 31 had attended the previous round at Brands Hatch.
Qualifying set up a surprise, as privateer Tom Nippers set a 2m02.191s to beat Quinn to pole by a tenth of a second, with Mann Motorsport’s Charlie Mann in third and Quinn’s title rival Jason Pribyl also within a second of pole in fourth.
Nipper made a good start in race one, as Quinn jumped Mann off the line and got into second which was more than enough to secure the title. Initially Nippers set fastest lap after fastest lap, but then as his tyres aged the pace advantage went to Quinn and on lap six he was just 0.152 seconds behind.
He tried passing on lap eight, got his front wheels alongside again on lap nine but was not going to attempt anything risky with the title in mind. The power of the slipstream enabled him to repeatedly get close, and on the final lap after attempted moves at several corners he drew alongside Nippers at the finish line and came 0.058s short of beating him.
Mann finished just behind in third, and Pribyl lost out on fourth to Cox after plenty of wheel-to-wheel action.
“It was awesome,” said Nippers afterwards. “It was a good little fight.”
He added “the tow was absolutely wild here”, which Quinn was in agreement on. He called the fight “really, really good fun and entertaining”, and said now he was champion it “means i can go full whack for race two, becaue I was being very safe with that one”.
Nippers was able to win on-the-road again in race two, but a 10s penalty for being out of position at the start meant victory went to Mann. The race only ran for six laps, due to an incident that brought out red flags and with no time to restart at the end of the day.
Results round-up
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race 1 (10 laps) | ||||
| 1 | Tom Nippers | Van Diemen RF01 | 20m42.073s | |
| 2 | Morgan Quinn | Team Dolan | Van Diemen RF99 | +0.058s |
| 3 | Charlie Mann | Mann Motorsport | +0.375s | |
| 4 | Ben Cox | Oldfield Motorsport | Van Diemen JL13 | +11.135s |
| 5 | Jason Pribyl | PWR1 Racing | Ray GR20 | +11.987s |
| 6 | Adam Fathers | AF Racing | Ray GR16 | +1m34.071s |
| 7 | Klaus Dieter Haeckel | Auto Haeckel Motorsport | Van Diemen RF91 | +1m45.030s |
| 8 | Gerhard Hauschulte | Auto Haeckel Motorsport | Van Diemen RF91 | +1m45.263s |
| Pole: Nippers, 2m02.191s Fastest lap: Quinn, 2m02.572s | ||||
| Race 2 (6 laps) | ||||
| 1 | Mann | Mann Motorsport | Ray GR20 | 13m53.549s |
| 2 | Quinn | Team Dolan | Van Diemen RF99 | +1.243s |
| 3 | Nippers | Van Diemen RF01 | +8.934s | |
| 4 | Pribyl | PWR1 Racing | Ray GR20 | +14.865s |
| 5 | Fathers | AF Racing | Ray GR16 | +26.936s |
| 6 | Haeckel | Auto Haeckel Motorsport | Van Diemen RF91 | +1m11.369s |
| 7 | Hauschulte | Auto Haeckel Motorsport | Van Diemen RF91 | +1m15.484s |
| Ret | Cox | Oldfield Motorsport | Van Diemen JL13 | |
| FL: Nippers, 2m11.638s
Championship standings |
||||