Tofts holds off Foster to win first Walter Hayes Trophy heat

Photo: Ida Wood

KMR Sport’s Jacob Tofts held off Pirate M-Sports’ Joey Foster to win the first Walter Hayes Trophy heat race at Silverstone.

Foster started on pole alongside Ammonite Motorsport’s Anthony Amato, with John Svensson and Tofts on row two.

Amato made a strong start but Foster led into Copse for the first time, then Amato made a bold move into Becketts that earned him the lead and forced Foster deep. Tofts went past Foster on the inside too, and he comfortably claimed the lead down the Wellington Straight.

When they reached Brooklands, Nippers went around Foster’s outside for third while Amato cut across the kerbs on the inside. He rejoined and immediately drifted across into Nippers’ path, which then sent Nippers off exiting the corner and allowed Foster back through.

Tofts defended into Maggotts on lap two, as Nippers challenged Foster again. He began lap three by looking to his inside as Foster eyed up Amato’s inside. Amato went off, rejoined in second but lost the position into Maggotts then was overtaken by Nippers through Becketts.

Nippers went around Foster’s outside to take second before Brooklands, and he was on Tofts’ tail as they started lap four. They were so close that Nippers lost the panel above his nose cone, then that led to more bodywork flying off into the air.

The cost to performance was not immediately obvious, but Foster get past into Becketts as Amato fought Swift Cooper’s Luke Cooper behind them. Cooper tries to go around the outside at Luffield but did not have enough speed to pull it off.

He was more successful a lap later around the outside through Brooklands, although the move was not complete until the pit straight.

Tofts sought to break the tow up front, with the top two trading fastest laps. Yellow flags at Becketts due to Svensson crashing out took one overtaking opportunity away, but it allowed Foster to close right in on Tofts down the Wellington Straight on lap seven of eight.

The middle of the road was chosen by Tofts and it proved to be expert defending. He chose the same place on the final lap, but when Foster then went to the inside he reacted in a defensive move and just held off Foster to win.

“Kind of glad the race was only eight laps to be honest,” said Tofts after victory. “[Holding off Foster would be for] not much longer. Joey was really fast.”

Cooper overtook Nippers on lap six, and felt better about his car after admitting he “didn’t have the right set-up in qualifying”.

Amato lost fifth to a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits. Charlie Mann profited from that, while a back-and-forth battle between KMR’s racing returnee Brendon Leigh and TM Racing’s Tom Hawkins for seventh was decided in Leigh’s favour.

Enigma Motorsport’s Joseph Ahrens also got past the pair during the race’s second half, but then fell back behind them on the final lap. The top 13 went straight through to the semi-finals.

Heat 1 results (8 laps)