Home News Rory Smith takes lights-to-flag heat four win at the WHT

Rory Smith takes lights-to-flag heat four win at the WHT

by Steve Whitfield

Photo: Ida Wood

B-M Racing’s Rory Smith led home Chris Middlehurst and Nolan Allaer in the final Walter Hayes Trophy heat at Silverstone.

Reigning Formula Ford Festival winner Smith gained a clear lead from pole at the start while Middlehurst fended off Allaer and Julian Van der Watt for second. Allear ran wide on the exit of Copse and got sideways but held on to third. 

Defending WHT winner Joey Foster gained one place at the start but then slid wide at Becketts and slipped from fifth to seventh.

The Don Hardman Racing driver was soon back up to sixth before taking fifth from Lewis Fox on lap four, while Smith was pursued at the front by Team Dolan’s Middlehurst and Ammonite Motorsport’s Allaer in the race’s first half.

Smith extended his advantage to almost 0.9s by lap seven, with the gap pegged back to 0.744s on the final lap. Allaer finished a further 0.7s behind Middlehurst in third, with Van Der Watt fending off Foster for fourth.

Fox was almost three seconds further behind in sixth, while Adam Higgins ran in a lonely seventh for most of the eight-lap contest. Ben Cox was eighth ahead of Richard Tarling and Adam Quartermaine.

Joe Ahrens and Richard Higgins also made the semi-finals, while Nathan Tupper and Tom Radburn collided on the last lap while contesting the final automatic berth, promoting James Colborn to 13th.

Race result (8 laps)
Pos Driver Team Time
1 Rory Smith B-M Racing 9m40.811s
2 Chris Middlehurst Team Dolan +0.744s
3 Nolan Allaer Ammonite Motorsport +1.444s
4 Julian Van der Watt KMR Sport +2.515s
5 Joey Foster Don Hardman Racing +2.814s
6 Lewis Fox Team Fox Racing +5.552s
7 Adam Higgins Beastworx +11.591s
8 Ben Cox Souley Motorsport +14.123s
9 Richard Tarling Midland Classic Restorations +19.468s
10 Adam Quartermaine PWR1 Racing +26.924s
11 Joe Ahrens Enigma Motorsport +36.767s
12 Richard Higgins Beastworx +37.872s
13 James Colborn Wayne Poole Racing +42.123s
14 Ryan Campbell +47.079s
15 Nathan Tupper Team Fox Racing +47.133s
16 Henry Campbell +49.983s
17 Leanne McShane Souley Motorsport +58.522s
18 Vincent Jay TM Racing +59.143s
19 Dominic Mooney Midland Classic Restorations +1m14.734s
20 Tom Radburn Echo Motorsport +
Ret Ian Fernihough
Ret
Fastest lap: Van der Watt, 1m11.526s