Winter FF Zetec Championship
Brands Hatch
Sunday 23rd November 2003

Race Report: Paula Hamilton
Photos: Gary Hawkins

After a hot and dry summer, it was most unusual for all the competitors to practice, qualify and race in such monsoon type conditions that the rain Gods were going to throw at us for the final two rounds of this year's Winter Championship.

However conditions like these seperate ' The Men from the Boys ' and as soon as the guys hit the track for qualifying in simply awful conditions at 10:40am, we witnessed the coming of age of a certain ' James Harris '.

The team decided to run a 2003 Mygale for the previous two rounds a fortnight earlier at Snetterton. James, as did Tony Rodgers at the FF Festival, much prefers this chassis over the Ray which the team has been running all season in the 2003 UK FF Championship. It is much easier to drive because it's handles far more consistantly than the old Rays that we had. So it was no surprise that James simply ' fell in love ' with the Mygale this Sunday.

' Proof of the Pudding is in the Eating ' as they say and James blew away all the competition to set fastest time and pole for the first race. He lapped the Indy Circuit in 55.177 sec at an average speed of exactly 80.00 mph. A fantastic achievement not only because of the treacherous track conditions but there was some serious talent out there too. James beat Patrick Hogan, Sebastian Hohenthal, Charlie Kimball, Matt Howson, Philip Glew, Ryan Cannon and Stuart Gough.

Race One
At the beginning of the race, James led away and sadly Hogan's diff expired which allowed Hohenthal to close up and chase James through Paddock Hill. The Swede managed to just get past our man and from then on James chased and put the leader under enormous pressure. Matt Howson ran third but could not do anything about the two hard chargers ahead of him. The driving standards for Formula Ford were exceptionally high this round and everyone was keeping in mind that there was a second race later that day. At the chequered flag Hohenthal won with a time of 15m 50.090s at an average speed of 79.05mph. James was second in 15m 50.547s, Matt Howson third, Charlie Kimball 4th. James set the fastest lap at 54.532s at an average of 80.94mph. This was faster than his qualifying time, a spectacular effort.

Race Two
The start of the final race of this year's championship was at 3.11pm and it was becoming prematurely dark when I photographed the cars on the grid. The events that followed were, as the motoring press reported, a very controversial win by Nexa Racing's Sebastian Hohenthal. I feel that we were spoilt by the excellent driving standards in the first race but as this was the final, once again the ' we have the nothing to lose ' attitude took over. There were delays before the race got under way and when the field accelerated out of Graham Hill Bend on to Cooper Straight, three cars tangled.

The mid-field crash eliminated the luckless Patrick Hogan, Peter  Harris and poor Michael Evely suffered broken ribs which put him into hospital. I have no idea  why the officials did not red flag the race at this point because when leader James came round on the second lap and saw the scene of the crash, he spotted a medical car on the circuit and braked in order to slow the cars behind him. Unfortunately several cars ran into one another and then and only then did Race Control decide to red flag the race.  The rerun meant a shortened race and as soon as the green light came on for the second time, James shot off into the lead again followed by Howson and a poor starting Hohenthal. However the Swede managed to pass Howson out of Clearways at the end of the first lap and set off after James. I was watching the drama unfolding in front of my eyes from the winner's podium alongside Race Control. As each lap unfolded, I closed my eyes hoping that James's run of bad luck from the Summer Championship had finally deserted him. For five more furious laps James held the lead and the Swede managed to make a lunge at James in Clearways to pass ' our man '. James was having none of this and half a lap later he dived past Hohenthal in an awesome move going through the infamous and slippery Paddock Hill Bend. Then two laps later the Swede tried to repass James through Clearways once again. Result contact and James spun into retirement. The Swede said that he was on the inside of James who turned in on me but a furious Jato driver said that he was defending and there was no room up the inside. Sebastian was on the grass and as soon as he got on the brakes, he spun into me. I knew that there was only a lap to go, I was being careful and I am totally gutted.

Matt Howson who was following took the spoils and Hohenthal managed to recover and take second place which was sufficient for him to win the title. Charlie Kimball was third followed by Philip Glew.

When is poor James Harris's luck going to change. He proved today without a shadow of doubt that he is ' A Class Act ' and in 2004 he is going to be one of the major contenders for the 2004 UK FF Championship. Now that he has a decent car to pedal, he and one or two others are going to be the men to beat next year. I wish him all the luck in the world and I have sent a little prayer for him.

After the race James shot up to Race Control and formalised a protest. After much deliberation and the Race Stewards becoming involved, the final result stood and the matter was deemed ' to be a racing incident ' despite two marshals and the following Matt Howson who stated that the Swede's manoeuvre was not on and opportunistic to the extreme. That's Formula Ford racing for you and on some days you win one and then you lose one. Having said that I hope that the new race organisers for next year's championship really clamp down on poor driving standards. Whoever is Clerk of the Course next season has to be seen to be fair and tough. John Smith, HSCC Permanent Clerk and 750MC Clerk would be ideal.

I would like to take this final opportunity to thank everyone who has supported and assisted Team Jato Motorsport in this first full year of Formula Ford racing. It has been a sharp learning curve for all of us. However I feel that we acquitted ourselves extremely well and we have a very professional outlook and approach.

Next year is going to be a huge challenge but we will give it our best shot.

See you all next season.

Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year everyone!