Photo: Freddie Beckett/United FFord
PWR1 Racing’s Jason Prybil leads the United Formula Ford championship following the opening round on Silverstone’s National layout.
Jason Smyth set a 1m01.704s in qualifying to take pole by 0.125 seconds over Prybil, with Andrew Rackstraw a further 0.05s behind in third.
Smyth immediately moved to the inside at the start of race one, but returned to the outside line going into the opening corner. He kept Prybil at bay, with Rackstraw establishing himself in third while Morgan Quinn won a three-wide fight for fourth at Luffield.
Rackstraw went down the inside of Prybil exiting Maggotts on lap two, and a lap later went side-by-side with Smyth at Aintree but almost went off.
Just 0.07s split them entering lap four, and Rackstraw tried the outside of Maggotts but again ran out of room. The margins were even tighter at Brooklands as they collided. Rackstraw crawled to the pits, as Quinn collecting Smyth’s stationary car.
Prybil now led Alex Ames and Lewis Fox, and the safety car was summoned. Racing resumed on lap nine and Prybil nailed the restart. There was a three-wide battle for third at Aintree, and Ames ran wide at Luffield but stayed in second.
Fox passed him down the inside of Aintree on the next lap, while Jeremy Fairbairn – who had passed Isaac Canto da Silva and Charlie Mann – dropped from fourth to sixth by running wide. By the end of the lap he was back in fourth as Pablo Jequier clipped the rear of da Silva entering Brooklands, sending both of them into the path of Mann and retirement.
Fairbairn went down the inside of Ames exiting Maggotts on lap 12, with Ben Cox also trying to make a move before reaching the yellow flags at Brooklands. Prybil went into lap 13 leading by 1.529s, but then red flags waved and the results were taken from the end of lap 11, putting Ames back into third place.
Prybil missed the the race-ending call, stopping on track and then driving across the grass to enter the pits.
Race one’s results set the grid for the Jim Walsh Trophy-awarding race two, missed by da Silva, Jequier and Smyth due to chassis damage.
Ames went from third to first before Copse on lap one, but Prybil reclaimed the lead at Brooklands. Fairbairn took third from Fox on lap three, by which point the top two had broken away.
On lap eight Ames returned the favour on Prybil, but the latter had the inside line through Luffield and finished the lap 0.016s ahead. Ames made another attempt at Brooklands on lap 14, then two laps later successfully dived down the inside of Prybil at Maggotts.
Drivers to lap then got in the way of Ames, who lost out to Prybil at Brooklands next time by and then to Rackstraw at Maggotts the lap after that.
Rackstraw started 16th but was sixth by lap four. After clearing Cox he caught the ongoing fight for third by lap seven, passing Fairbairn on that lap and Fox a lap later. He had three seconds to make up on the leaders, and the gap only started shrinking on lap 16 of 20.
While Rackstraw could not get to the front, he inherited victory as Prybil got a five-second penalty for track limits abuse.
Quinn came from 17th to finish fourth, with the battling Fairbairn and Cox next up after Fox and Mann also got track limits penalties.
Results round-up
Race 1 (11 laps)
1 Jason Prybil PWR1 Racing 14m39.168s
2 Lewis Fox Team Fox Racing +1.639s
3 Alex Ames Sema Racing +2.341s
4 Jeremy Fairbairn Ammonite Motorsport +2.660s
5 Ben Cox Oldfield Motorsport +3.119s
6 Nigel Dolan B-M Racing +5.623s
7 Adam Fathers AF Racing +5.803s
8 Klaus-Dieter Haeckel Auto Haeckel Motorsport +7.201s
9 Tom Radburn Kevin Mills Racing +9.545s
10 Stuart Kestenbaum Don Hardman Racing +11.749s
Pole: Jason Smyth, 1m01.704s
Fastest lap: Morgan Quinn, 1m02.337s
Jim Walsh Trophy (20 laps)
1 Andrew Rackstraw KMR Sport 20m54.352s
2 Ames +1.721s
3 Prybil +4.768s
4 Quinn Team Dolan +10.378s
5 Fairbairn +12.961s
6 Cox +13.174s
7 Fox +16.191s
8 Charlie Mann Mann Motorsport +16.299s
9 Dolan +38.868s
10 Haeckel +48.834s
FL: Rackstraw, 1m01.932s
Championship standings
1 Prybil 38 2 Fairbairn 30 3 Fox 28 4 Cox 26 5 Rackstraw 20 6 Dolan 20 7 Quinn 16 8 Haeckel 16 9 Radburn 14 10 Kestenbaum 11