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 Winter
FF Zetec Championship
Snetterton
9th November 2003
Race
Report: Paula Hamilton
Photographs: Steve Jones &
Mary Harvey
Sadly, I was unable to make the trip up to Snetterton for the first two races of the defence of our 2002 Winter Series Championship title. Therefore this is going to be a very brief report. However I will be at Brands Hatch over the weekend of 22nd/23rd November for the final two races and I will be taking photos too.
Qualifying Sunday 9th November - 9.21am
The team decided to run the Mygale rather than the Ray chassis that we have been using all this season in the 2003 UK FF Championship. James Harris our only driver competing in this year's Winter Championship simply prefers the Mygale and his times in practice the day before confirmed this
decision. He qualified 9th out of 18 runners in sunny but damp track conditions with a time of 1:11.406 which was only 1.295 seconds off Charlie Kimball's pole position time of 1:10.111
Race 1 - Sunday 9th November - 12.15pm
James finished in 7th place which was a good result for him and the team. Charlie Kimball won the race from Philip Glew and Sebastian Hohenthal. Matt Howson lead the next batch of cars behind the first three and James was right up there fighting for position with Neil Doran and Stuart Gough. Only .998 of a second seperated 5th placed Neil and James in 7th. Then there was a gap of some 5 seconds to the next bunch of cars. The weather was overcast and the track was dry. Fastest lap went to Philip Glew with a time of 1:10.652 and James's best lap was 1:11.352 only .700 behind.
Race 2 - Sunday 9th November - 14:18pm
The final race of the meeting for the FF Zetec squad proved to be as equally competitive as the earlier round. The weather remained overcast but dry. This time Matt Howson headed home Sebastian Hohenthal and Charlie Kimball with a best lap time of 1:10.688 Then there was a 7second gap to 4th and 5th placed James Jakes and Stuart Gough. James Harris finished ahead of the next bunch in 6th place with a best lap time of 1:11.707 which was 1.019 seconds slower than Matt Howson's best time.
Post race conclusion
Sadly we are not going to retain our Winter Series title but it was always going to be a tall order in view of the fact that the team was only running one driver, namely James. However he had an excellent meeting overall with his 6th and 7th places. Remember that only one year ago James was a rookie to Formula Ford racing, yet still won " Best Newcomer Award " in the 2002 Winter Series. He has had a good year in his first full season of running in this summer's UK FF Championship and the experience gained has shown in his results this weekend. He has matured enormously in all respects and the team is very much looking forward to Brands Hatch in two weeks time. See you all
there.
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(Photo: Mary Harvey)
(Photo: Steve Jones)
(Photo: Steve Jones)
(Photo: Steve Jones)
(Photo: Mary Harvey)
(Photo: Mary Harvey)
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