Photo: Ida Wood
The penalty that meant Walter Hayes Trophy winner Jason Smyth started the final from 13th almost led to him withdrawing from the event.
Smyth had stormed to heat two pole around Silverstone’s National layout, but was frustrated at himself after being beaten to victory by KMR Sport’s Andrew Rackstraw in that race and semi-final one.
In the latter, Ammonite Motorsport’s Anthony Amato and B-M Racing’s Rory Smith had spun around the front of Smyth after coming either side of him approaching Luffield.
Smyth was found responsible and handed a 10-place grid penalty, and with the chance of victory reduced there was a call to withdraw his car.
Neville Smyth, 2006 WHT runner-up and Jason’s father, jumped on the winning car [pictured] when it returned to the pitlane and the victor’s first words to him were “I told you so!”.
“I just can’t believe it. I thought it was over after that [penalty],” an emotional Smyth Sr told Formula Scout.
“It was terrible to see Rory go out, because Rory’s a great competitor and you don’t like to see it happen. And he goes out, so we were disappointed in that. But in my mind it was a racing incident. I thought the penalty wasn’t very fair.
“I told Jason we weren’t going to do the final. I said it to the clerk of the course. And Jason told me: ‘No, dad. I’ll win it from 13th.’. And the emotion. Like, what do you say to that? I had to get the car ready. I couldn’t say no… unbelievable.”
The younger Smyth and team boss Bernard Dolan were convinced victory remained possible, and Smyth had a fresh set of tyres while team-mate and victory rival Niall Murray continued on the rubber he had comfortably won semi-final two with.
Despite winning the United Formula Ford title, FFord Festival and WHT this year, Smyth lacks the financial backing to move into winged single-seaters for 2026. The Irish-Filipino youngster is also in his final year studying engineering at college in Dublin.
The man who “created the beast” who won FF1600’s major honours this year is Team Dolan’s driver coach Matt Round-Garrido, a FF1600 champion who reached USF Pro 2000 during his racing career.
“We started working together at the start of last season, and straight away you could see the lad had bundles of talent,” he said of coaching Smyth.
“It was just about harnessing it in the right way. Knowing when to push hard, where in the corner to be pushing hard, where to kind of pull it back a bit. So Bernard and I have been working on that with him. And his father as well. Bernard and Neville have done such a good job with the car. In my opinion, the best car, the best motor, and the best driver.”
Round-Garrido was naturally “really happy” with the win, having felt “like I’ve been pushing quite hard” to make Smyth a victory contender.