Rackstraw wins Peter Rogers Trophy after late drama at Brands Hatch

Photo: Ida Wood

KMR Sport’s Andrew Rackstraw won the Peter Rogers Trophy in a dramatic second United Formula Ford race on Brands Hatch’s Indy layout.

Team Dolan’s Jason Smyth started on pole after winning race one, with Rackstraw joining him on the front row while Morgan Quinn (Dolan) and Tom Nippers filled row two of the grid.

Smyth had a slow second stage of the launch but kept the lead and the top two broke away. Ammonite Motorsport’s drivers were battling each other on lap two, while Jason Pribyl (PWR1 Racing) and Brandon McCaughan (Oldfield Motorsport) went side-by-side through Paddock Hill Bend, Druids and Graham Hill Bend disputing fifth before McCaughan tucked in behind at Surtees.

Nippers set the fastest lap but the top three responded and he was soon having to think about Pribyl and McCaughan behind him.

The gap between Smyth and Rackstraw was often dictated by how much pressure Quinn was putting Rackstraw under, but it was not until lap 10 that Smyth led by more than a second. It soon dipped back below that as he became the first driver encountering cars to lap, but then grew to 2.9 seconds on lap 14 as Quinn attacked Rackstraw at Druids.

Raindrops appeared a lap later at Paddock Hill Bend, but were not falling consistently until lap 18 and by that point traffic was the main concern for the frontrunners. Smyth’s lead went up to 3.4s as the grip levels fluctuated around the track, and he was continuing to pull away until he lost drive at the end of lap 22 and then stopped at the bottom of Paddock Hill.

Rackstraw was promoted into first, with a comfortable gap to Quinn to manage through the increasingly wet last few laps.

McCaughan passed Pribyl and Nippers into Paddock Hill Bend on laps 10 and 11 respectively, with Pribyl also clearing Nippers exiting Druids. Two laps later he was dicing with McCaughan again after a bit of brake-testing at Graham Hill Bend but his work to get back ahead was undone by a driveshaft failure that meant he retired in the pits.

Once Smyth also retired, McCaughan then found himself holding off Nippers for third.

Ammonite’s Caleb Gafrarar was a lonely fifth, and Dolan’s Isaac Canto da Silva had an action-filled run to ninth. He fought Charlie Mann for sixth at first, spending half of lap seven side-by-side before getting past, then was lining up Nippers for fifth on lap 19 before a three-wide moment at Graham Hill Bend dropped him to 11th. The two retirements lifted him two spots.

Journalist Mattia Tremolada sat behind these battles and stayed out of trouble, although on lap 15 tried to pass Oldfield’s Ben Cox at Paddock Hill Bend and Druids before a snap of oversteer allowed Cox to escape him.

Race result (24 laps)