Scott Malvern's blog

I finally got behind the wheel of my new car with which we hope to compete this season in the MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain and I have to say what a fantastic job Gavin Ray & Raysport have done building it and Cliff Dempsey have done preparing it and we musn’t forget the excellent engine supplied by Scholar Power.

The test yesterday was in fact the official MSA FF championship launch day organised by Racing Line who are to be commended for organsing the day and giving us all almost 3 hours of free track time. Motor Racing is so expensive that any financial help is most welcome especially in the current difficult economic climate.

The test took place at Oulton which will be the venue for the first three rounds of the championship over the Easter weekend in just over three weeks time (3-5th April). Over 20 drivers took part and almost all of the teams that will be entering the championship, including of course the multiple & current champions and my former employer Jamun Racing. I have to say I have a very healthy respect for Tony & James Mundy at Jamun and I owe them quite a lot for helping me to learn about this business. I also get on well with all my former colleagues who I used to work with. However that of course doesn’t mean that Cliff and I don’t want to do our very best to beat them but in the nicest possible way of course!

We couldn’t really have asked for a better start yesterday in taking the fight to Jamun and the other top teams with an unbelievable first run out of the box which saw us top the test times in the first session. This was amazing especially as we actually found a very small problem with the car after the session which would have cost us a few tenths.

Happy that we had a good base set up some changes were made for session two and although we weren’t fastest this time we were not very far off of it with the Jamun Mygale cars of Scott Pye and Josh Hill and the Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum, driven by Dan Cammish, all just ahead of me.

More changes were made for the third and final session of the day and i went even quicker; a whole second faster than my fastest morning time and only bettered late in the session by Scott Pye a couple of tenths quicker still. Phew!

So we were delighted to end the day 2nd fastest overall on the three combined sessions which considering this was our first run, and others had already done quite a bit of testing through the winter, made us all very happy.

But let’s not get carried away. We are keeping our feet planted firmly on the ground and we know that all of our rivals will be working very hard to beat us and we will be working just as hard to beat them and whilst testing all together like this gives some indication as to who the contenders will be its not until we have the first race that we’ll know for certain who they really are. But I for one cannot wait. I think this will be a great championship this year. There are some very good drivers entered and some very experienced teams as well and remember we are still sort of new kids on the block and still learning. But as long as I can find the rest of the budget that I need to complete the season (certainly not easy at the moment) then I like to think that our package will be somewhere near the sharp end. Only time will tell.

Now feet firmly back on the ground I am back in the workshop today building and preparing karts for Project One Racing and tomorrow I get to have some more fun by doing some component testing and develpment work out on our test track. I still love getting in a kart whenever I can and it doesn’t hurt in keeping me sharp for my Formula Ford racing so its not such a bad life is it??!!

I’ll be blogging again with another update soon!

Well my brand new Ray GR10 car has been collected by Cliff (Dempsey) from the Ray workshop and is now having the final components added to it as we speak. The plan was to begin our test programme with a shake down this week and then move onto the official MSA Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain launch day and timed test at Oulton Park the following week. We would then fit in another test or two prior to the opening rounds back at Oulton Park over the Easter weekend. So much for best laid plans!

Slight snag in our plan is that I am not able to drive the car at the moment. Not only am I not able to drive my race or any other car right now; in fact I would struggle to drive my Play Station simulator! I have been struck down by a form of blood poisoning which has caused a severe and painful swelling on my hand and until it clears up I cannot do very much. The worrying thing is that my younger brother had near enough an identical condition two years ago and ended up having to be hospitalised for five days as prescription drugs were not strong enough to fight it. Obviously I’m hoping that the same thing will not happen to me and I will be well enough in a few days to begin driving again.

However on a positive note I can say that my 2010 team mate has done a few days testing in the sister car and it went extremely well so we are all very encouraged by this. I am not being deliberately mysterious by not revealing their name as I don’t want to jump the gun on a press release regarding this which will be available soon revealing his or her identity!

So one way another it’s been a slightly strange week. It started well last weekend with a brilliant night at the BRSCC awards where it was great to catch up with lots of other drivers and faces from the industry on a social occasion. I am very pleased with the two championship trophies that I collected. A few days later it was my birthday but unfortunately by then I was already suffering from this infection so that was quite a subdued affair. Now I’m just itching to get into the car and get on with the job so this is a very frustrating situation but I suppose the saving grace is it would be worse if it had occurred during the height of the season.

Anyway I’m not quite an invalid yet. My brother Jon is playing taxi driver for me this weekend and has driven me to Bayford Meadow kart circuit where I am still able to help the Project One Team during their race weekend with driver coaching and data analysis and it’s good to have something to do and to feel useful! I’m just hoping it’s not too long before I am able to get back out on the track myself. I will keep you all posted.

It’s been a little while since I last blogged on here and one could be forgiven for thinking this is because nothing is going on, but this could’nt be further from the truth. As I write I am over in Northern Ireland helping and advising some new customers of Project One Racing’s highly successful Honda Cadet kart. We were at the Kirkistown circuit for a race meeting over the weekend (where I also saw my friend and current F3 star Wayne Boyd) and now we have two days of testing at Nutts Corner. I then go straight from here to Rowrah in Cumbria where I’ll be helping Project One Racing during their testing in preparation for the forthcoming Super One meeting in the Rotax classes there. I won’t be home until the end of the week, after a week away, and its a quick turn around and back up to Stratford Upon Avon for the British Racing & Sports Car Club Awards Dinner. I’m delighted to have two championship trophies to collect from our brilliant debut season of car racing and it will give us one opportunity to celebrate our triumphs of last year which I think is very important for the team, the sponsors and everyone else who helped in any capacity during our 2009 campaign. It’s also my birthday a few days later so I will allow myself a little time to celebrate as I will be busy on the day itself.

In fact 2010, as we are now very much in, seems to be flying by rapidly! The only competitive driving I’ve managed to do so far is at the Annual Autosport Show, at the NEC in Birmingham last month, in the charity karting event. I have to say it was more of a demolition derby this year which just goes to show that you can put some of the most famous and talented racing drivers together in a so called non serious event and their natural competitive instinct takes over and they all just want to beat each other at all costs!! Such was the high volume and frequency of the red flags that I only managed a couple of racing laps but never the less I enjoyed myself and more importantly a good amount was raised for the very worthy cause of Malaria No More. David Brabham, who I have got to know quite well these past few months, should be appluaded for continuing to work tirelously to make this annual event a success.

So although very busy I’m yet to get behind the wheel of a race car yet in 2010 and I know some of my peers have been able to go abroad and test but neither time nor budget will unfortunately afford me this luxury at present but I still believe we can be well prepared for the first round of the MSA British Formula Ford Championship at Oulton Park over the Easter weekend. We will be at the official championship launch and test day at the same venue on 10th March with a shiny brand new Ray chassis and hope to schedule some additional testing between now and the opening event. I have every confidence in the Cliff Dempsey Team and their preparartion and in Ray Race Cars ability to put a good car under me and I am very much looking forward to what will be hard but plesurable challenge ahead!

Well as you may have read in the Motorsport Press by now, my 2010 plans are to continue with Cliff Dempsey Racing and to race in the MSA British Formula Ford Championship. We also plan to use the Ray chassis again. Ray haven’t taken any victories in the British Championship since Nick Tandy won in 2007 so we would very much like to rectify that situation although don’t think for a minute that we are underestimating the enormity of the task.

I was very flattered to revceive a number of approaches from several of the top Formula Ford Teams and we did consider things very carefully. But when we joined up with Cliff at the beginning of last year to race in National FF1600 we always talked about moving up to Duratec in 2010 if we did a good job in 2009. Well we certainly did do a good job and I am very happy with the team and all of the team personnel and therefore saw no reason to split up a successful combination. I also know that Cliff has a burning desire to return to the British Championship having not competed there since 2006 when his own son Peter took third place in the series and won 4 races.

So there we have it. We now have to sort out some of the detail but hope to be able to start testing in a few weeks from now and with the change to Dunlop tyres believe that we will have as a good a chance as anyone although I’m sure my former colleagues at Jamun, and some of the other experienced teams, will be up to speed pretty quickly!

It will definately be a challenge and one that I am relishing very much!! I’ll be back with further updates soon! Until then; Happy New Year to all!

Well the race season may be over but the so called “silly season” is now well under way and I have to say I have been incredibly busy these past few weeks! My schedule recently has included Dunlop tyre testing in Formula Ford Duratec for Raysport at Snetterton and shake down testing again in Formula Ford Duratec for the Juno Team at Rockingham. Component testing for Project One karts at Whilton Mill and at PF International kart circuits and taking part in the annual Johnny Herbert Karting challenge in London at the end of November. Phew! But I’m not complaining, it’s great to be in demand and. I love any opportunity to get out on a race track whether it is in a car or a kart.

But motorsport certainly can have its ups & downs and the euphoria of the great season we have had winning championships and big events was certainly tempered by the news that we had been excluded from the Formula Ford Festival runner up spot owing to a technical infringement. The unfortunate circumstances that brought this about have been well documented elsewhere so I’m not going to through it again chapter and verse here. But suffice to say although my carburettor was correctly ruled to be illegal neither the team nor I knew that this was the case and the engine builder in question has apologised unreservedly and publicly for his mistake. The carb in question was a replacement carb only used for that event and had recently been rebuilt by the tuner. Although illegal it did not offer any performance advantage to me in the Festival or Patrick McKenna in the Walter Hayes Trophy when he used the same car 2 weeks later. While we are all naturally very disappointed that this has happened we fully agree that it is justified and fully support more rigorous checks on components in motor racing.

Many professional drivers are excluded during their careers at least once due to a breach of technical regulations. It doesn’t mean that there is anything deliberately underhand going on. More often than not it is a simple mistake or miscalculation or sometimes a misinterpretation of the rule book. But rules are rules and have to be upheld with no grey areas and we all have to accept that.

Ironically my exclusion means that USA Scholarship driver Brett Smrz, who was driving the very same car in the Festival that I had driven throughout 2009 will now be elevated to third place and a podium and I am delighted for him so congratulations Brett!

After all the serious and heavy business we have had to go through lately it was great to go and have some fun at the annual Johnny Herbert Karting challenge. This is a 4 hour team endurance event that I have been competing in since 2004 thanks to my very good friends and sponsors Lynne Baines (Baines Leasing) and Shane Harriot (Harriot Plumbing Services). A good cause, chosen by Johnny, always benefits from the event and this year in excess of £18,000 was raised for the Harry Birrell Scholarship Trust. Our team consisted of Lynne and Shane, my younger (& some would say better looking) brother Jon and a young karting friend of ours Jack Marshall and of course yours truly!. I am delighted to say that we finished in an excellent 2nd place out of 24 teams entered and some very good drivers; just check out the names of those entered on the website http://johnnyherbertkarting.co.uk/?p=378#more-378

So for now the focus continues to be on securing a competitive drive in the MSA British Formula Ford championship for 2010. This is not going to an easy task as we have to raise the budget but I am determined to further prove my ability against the best drivers possible. As soon as I have any further news I will let you know what we are up to!

Thank you all for your continued interest and support

Bye for now

Scott

I spent over six hours yesterday afternoon & evening (12th Nov) in the HQ of Motorsport Ireland, in Dublin, at a hearing that would ultimately decide whether Rory Butcher or I would be the 2009 Webcon UK Formula Ford National Champion.

I have to be perfectly honest in that it is not an experience that I would be keen to repeat but unfortunately in this case it was totally necessary. It was brought about by an on track incident early on in the final championship round at Mondello Park in September. Rory’s car made contact with my car and the damage that my car sustained caused me to retire from the race soon afterwards. If you read my earlier blog concerning this incident you will know that this is a race I’m certain I would have won. After the race, the Clerk of the Course examined CCTV footage of the incident along with other evidence and made the decision to exclude Rory from the result of the race. Rory subsequently appealed this decision to the Steward of the meeting making this hearing necessary.

After a very long hearing yesterday the Motorsport Ireland officials retired to deliberate making known their final decision this morning (13th Nov). I am very pleased that Motorsport Ireland agreed with the Clerk of the Course decision and found in my favour. Rory’s exclusion means that I am now 2009 Webcon UK National Formula Ford Champion.

Of course this is not the way I wanted the championship to be decided. However there was unfortunately no alternative and I owed it to all the people that have helped me this year to pursue justice. I have no personal animosity towards Rory Butcher of whom I have said on a number of occasions I have enjoyed battling against this season. I sincerely hope that both he and I can now put this episode behind us and get on with our respective motorsport careers whatever they may be.

I would very much like to record my thanks to everyone who has helped me with this matter not least the whole of the Cliff Dempsey Race Team and all of my fantastic sponsors. Special mentions must go to Motorsport Ireland, Tom O’Neil, Brian Grogan and my brother Jon for supporting me.

My focus now turns towards 2010 and I very much hope that I will be able to continue racing although I realise this in itself will be an achievement! I hope to be testing a Duratec Formula Ford car at Snetterton next week and if it happens I’ll be telling you how it went in my next blog.

All the best for now
Scott

Well racing may be over for this year but there is still a lot going on!

Firstly I was very sorry to have to miss what should have been the final meeting of the year for me, the Sir Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone. Unfortunately in the end we were just overcome by circumstances and had to admit defeat. This was a shame, particularly as the meeting was predominantly wet and I’d won comprehensively on the same circuit, in the wet, back in June. But every cloud as they say has a silver lining and it was a great to see another Cliff Dempsey driver take the win; Connor DePhillippi who was over here for the Formula Ford Festival & the Sir Walter Hayes Trophy, with fellow American Brett Smrz, as part of the USA Driver Scholarship programme. Both drivers did a great job and made many friends on their trip over here and Jeremy Shaw is to be applauded for setting up this great initiative. Its only a great shame that there isn’t someone on our side of the pond running an equivalent scheme that could send two promising drivers over to the USA for a couple of events!

I spent the weekend helping out my former kart team Project One Racing at PFI International circuit in Lincolnshire. I’ve been doing quite a lot with them lately including helping young Sam Brabham trough his first few karting events. Sam is the son of former F1 driver and Le Mans winner and ALMS champion David Brabham which of course also makes him the grandson of three times F1 World Champion, the great Sir Jack Brabham. It’s very early days but Sam really is showing a lot of promise and natural ability, and completely the right attitude and I think he could have a great career ahead of him if he chooses to pursue it seriously.

Talking of karting I cannot wait for my next race which will see me get back into a kart! It’s the annual charity fundraiser organised by Johnny Herbert in London at the end of this month. I’ve been taking part in this event since 2004 thanks to my sponsors Lynne Baines & Shane Herriot of Baines Leasing and Herriot Plumbing services and it’s a really fun event which has raised a considerable amount of money for good causes. Some very renowned names from the world of motor racing and entertainment take part and over the years there has been Damon Hill, Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Allan McNish, and Ricardo Patrese amongst many others. If you would like to know more about the event then please check out http://johnnyherbertkarting.co.uk/

Aside from this my focus is very much on next year and making a big effort to secure a deal to keep on racing. I very much hope to be competing in the MSA British Formula Ford Championship but of course I have to get the funding in place to do this and I know that it’s not going to be easy. But then, of course, neither was this year and I am definitely not one to be put off by a challenge. I’ve learnt that the things you really want in life rarely come to you easily so if I am not racing next year it will definitely not be through any lack of hard work or application on my part!

I do hope to at least be testing a car or two in the coming weeks and if and when that happens I will update you here via my blog as to my progress.

All the best for now and thank you for your continued interest

Scott

The Formula Ford Festival is without doubt one of the legendary Motor Racing Events. It was established in 1972 and takes place every October at Brands Hatch. Many legendary names have competed at the Festival including Ayrton Senna, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill and of course the new Formula One World Champion Jenson Button won the Festival in 1998. What a coincidence that we should be on track at the 2009 Festival at the same time that Jenson was wrapping up the World title in Brazil.

Having come to the Festival last year as a mechanic for Jamun Racing, I was delighted to return this year as a driver with Cliff Dempsey Racing. I remember watching the races from the pit lane and thinking how much I wanted to be out on the track driving but not really expecting to be. What an amazing year it has been!

Our team drew a lot of media attention this year as once again Cliff Dempsey was chosen to run the USA Scholarship programme drivers. Connor De Phillippi and Bret Smrz were chosen and both came with impressive CVs and quite something to live up to given the success of last years drivers Conor Daly and Josef Newgarden.

With so many drivers entering we had to be split into two qualification groups. I was in the first group of cars out on track at 9am on Saturday morning in pretty cold but dry and clear conditions. Brett was also in my group along with many other of the fancied drivers including 2006 winner Noel Dunne, Matt Rivett, Ed Moore and Morgan Dempsey.

I was very pleased to snatch pole position by just three hundredths of a second from team mate Brett Smrz which meant that we had an all Cliff Dempsey Racing front row for our heat race.

The heat race took place mid afternoon on Saturday in slightly warmer conditions. I didn’t make the best of starts and had to withstand considerable pressure from Josh Fisher in his rapid 92 Swift for the first few laps. But I kept my composure and gradually pulled out a comfortable gap of almost two and half seconds to take the win at the end of 15 laps of racing; with my only scare being almost driven off of the track by a lapped back marker. Behind me I was very pleased to see that my team mate Brett had managed to come through to finish in 2nd place.

Heat two was won by my season long rival Rory Butcher which meant that we would both start from pole position for our respective semi final races. These took place on Sunday morning with mine being the second of the two races.

In semi final one Rory Butcher took a fairly comfortable win as many of his rivals ran into trouble including my two USA Scholarship team mates De Phillippi and Smrz. In fact Brett would have to qualify through the last chance race.

In my semi final I made a much better start than my heat but after opening a small gap for the first lap I was caught by the very fast Neville Smyth who I think ran his 2nd set of new tyres for this race. I elected to preserve my 2nd set for the 25 lap final. Neville is a wily old fox and I know from what he did to me at the Martin Donnelly Trophy at Kirkistown in August he can be a very hard driver. But to his credit he was tough but very clean this time but he did put me under considerable close pressure for the 18 lap race and I tried everything to shake him off. When I realised I couldn’t out run him I tried to back him into 3rd placed Ivor McCulloch, another very seasoned campaigner with F3 experience.

Neville tried everything he knew to come by but I kept my cool and stuck doggedly to my defence knowing that if I could start from the front row of the final on new rubber I would have a good chance. I managed to hold off Neville by a gap of just over two tenths at the end to take the win. This now set up the final that everyone seemed to want and was predicting with Rory and me on the front row!

The final was late afternoon and the sun was really low in the sky and in our eyes as went off on our formation lap for our 25 lap final. Rory going off pole made a flyer and I had no option but to tuck in behind him. He was very quick on his first lap opening a 4 car length gap while I had to make sure I wasn’t passed by 3rd placed Morgan Dempsey.

To his credit Rory had very good pace for the first few laps and whilst I was hardly struggling and now in comfortable 2nd I could do little to stop Rory opening more than a two second gap. To most observers the race must have looked in the bag for Rory at this point, but I didn’t panic and kept my cool expecting the track and Rory to come to me and sure enough, the tide turned!

From about half distance, I began eating into Rory’s lead; sometimes by as much as half a second. I could see his driving getting ever more ragged as I relentlessly closed the gap on him, setting the fastest lap of the race in the process, and I knew now that the race win was mine for the taking. By lap 20 of 25 I was so close to Rory that I could almost reach out and touch him as my nose cone almost kissed his gearbox but then the very thing that I didn’t want to happen did and lady luck smiled on my rival as the safety car was called out to recover the car of David Quinn that was stranded at Druids. I was quite puzzled about this as previous cars had been recovered from Druids with a live snatch under yellow flag conditions but I know that safety has to be paramount.

With just a couple of racing laps the safety car withdrew. Rory going as early as he possibly could initially tried to shake me but realising he couldn’t he then tried to back me into Morgan Dempsey and Neville Smythe. Some of his tactics were questionable and potentially dangerous as he stopped his car at Paddock Hill bend to block me which meant that I ran into the back of him at one point; but he did everything he knew to hold onto the win because if I’d been able to get by he’d have had no answer.

In the end Rory’s winning margin over me was just 0.069 of a second. It was almost a photo finish at the chequered flag.

I will say that despite our intense and fierce rivalry, and of course our as of yet unresolved championship dispute, Rory did pay tribute to me when he was interviewed by legendary commentator Brian Jones on the podium, saying that I had been a very tough rival this year and admitted that were it not for the safety car that I probably would have won.

Of course I was bitterly disappointed to be 2nd having come so very close to the win but I had to take a lot of positives from this performance which saw me go up against the very best drivers not just from the UK and Ireland but from as far afield as Sweden, South Africa and of course USA and beat all but one of them. What a long way I have come in the 12 months since holding the spanners for Jamun and what a fantastic season it has been! Of course none of it would have been possible without Cliff Dempsey and my great mechanic Francie Gibbs. Also I have to pay tribute again to my sponsors, Essex Gas, Baines Leasing, Lamberhurst Corporation, ScanDoc and Laserfiche who all made it possible for me to take part.

Finally well done to my old Karting friend Chrissie Palmer who won the Duratec Festival with Jamun, and to my great team mates Cormac O’Neil, Stephen Daly, Connor De Phillippi and Brett Smrz with a special mention for Brett for the recovery of the day coming trough from 21st on the grid in the five lap dash last chance race to finish 4th in the final; brilliant effort.

2009 has been a fantastic adventure. I only hope that it can continue!
Scott

While I must await the verdict of the Motorsport Ireland Inquiry to determine whether it will be me or Rory Butcher who will be Webcon UK National Formula Ford Champion; I have at least one more title in the bag this week; The Richard Egger Midlands & South Formula Ford Championship.

The nice thing is that we weren’t actually trying to win this championship and only competed in half of the rounds scheduled. But the very good results that we were able to achieve in those few rounds meant that my points total couldn’t be overhauled by any of the championship regulars.

It was strange to hear that I was crowned champion at Mallory Park last Sunday and I wasn’t even there! I was, in fact helping out my former kart team Project One Racing at Bayford Meadow circuit.

But although I wasn’t chasing this title, I am none the less delighted to win it. It’s been a briiliant debut season and I am now very pleased to confirm that I will be entering the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch in a couple of weeks time (Oct 17th-18th). This is a great event held every year since 1972 with some real big names on the winners trophy such as Johnny Herbert & Jenson Button so I’m thrilled to be taking part and there is an added bonus in that once again the team I drive for Cliff Dempsey Racing ahs been chosen to run the two Scholarship USA drivers.

In 2008 Cliff Dempsey Racing won the Festival with USA Scholarship driver Josef Newgarden so I’m expecting the two drivers entered this year, Brett Smrz and Connor De Phillippi, to be of a equally high standard making it a very comptetitive entry.

Before I sign off I’d just like to offer big congratulations to Peter Dempsey on his win in Star Mazda at Road Atlanta last weekend. With one round to go at Laguna Secca he is now in a great position to take the overall title.

Will be blogging again soon!

Well if nothing else I’ve had a season of victories and high drama so far this year. Another victory came my way at Mondello Park, in Ireland, last Saturday and that set up a winner takes all championship decider between me and Rory Butcher for the final round on Sunday. But for the second successive meeting a desperate move by Rory prevented me from taking what was almost definitely another victory. And now the drama continues but more about that later.

This wasn’t my first visit to Mondello Park, I made by race debut there back in March, but this time the longer International track was being used and I have to say I really enjoyed driving it. It reminded me a little of Oulton Park; another circuit where I’ve had success this year.

My pace in Friday qualifying was very good and I was the fastest FF1600 runner out there but frustratingly I missed out on pole position in Saturday qualifying. This was more due to track position and circumstances rather than any lack of pace. I was held up in traffic early in the session despite hanging back to give myself room and then on my fastest lap the oil flags came out due to Derek Daly’s leaking car which resulted in an early termination of the session. Nevertheless I was 2nd fastest and happy to be starting on the front row with my only championship rival Rory Butcher on pole. I knew that winning the championship was now in my hands. If I beat Rory I would be champion; simple as that and I have to say I felt very calm and content about the situation. In fact several observers commented over the weekend how calm I was for someone in their first season of racing on the brink of winning a championship. But this was not to be misconstrued as any lack of determination or ambition.

The simple matter of fact was that this was what I had worked for all year to put myself into a position where I could be champion and now that I had achieved that I was feeling really happy that I could savour the moment. But more than that I was relishing the battle with Rory. My only hope was that he would not resort to the desperate tactics that he had used at Brands Hatch last time out which really spoilt the day for both of us. I was hoping that the penalty points that he received on his licence along with the severe reprimand would be enough to deter him from making such a move again and we could race cleanly. Perhaps I have too much faith in human nature?

I made a fantastic start in race one and by contrast Rory made a poor one. While I established a lead my pit board told me that Rory had fallen back to 4th place and this gave me the encouragement to push on which I did breaking the lap record in the process. Only a mistake late in the race by one of my team mates Stephen Daly, who was third at the time, allowed Rory to finish on the podium with local championship leader Noel Dunne taking 2nd place. But I knew that Rory had finished more than six seconds behind me and his fastest lap was 0.5 of a second slower than my fastest. It was a very satisfying performance.

With different rules to what we have been running all year I again had to start from grid 2 for the second race on Sunday despite winning race one. Rory would again start from pole. This would now be a straight race for the championship. Although I had amassed considerably more championship points than Rory over the previous 13 rounds (Rory had forgone one of these to compete in a clashing Scottish championship event) each championship competitor is allowed to discard their two worst results. In Rory’s case this amounted to a zero score and a very low score. But my two worst results were a 3rd place & a 4th place finish; much higher scores. The reason for the two “dropped” rounds is to combat the attrition rate in the latter stages of the championship from drivers who have had a run of poor results. Rory only had to drop 4 points from his total while I had to concede a whopping 22 so I would need to beat him again giving me 7 outright championship victories to his 5. But I felt very happy in the knowledge that if I did win the race I would definitely be champion no matter where Rory ended up. Therefore events would be totally in my control; or so I thought!

I again made a good a start and headed Rory into turn one but at turn two he did exactly the same thing he did at Brands Hatch last month cutting across the curb and driving into me causing me to spin. He knew that I had the pace to drive away from him as I had done in race one and therefore was desperate to stop me by any means. Although I felt incredibly aggrieved for this to happen again I felt confident that the race officials would clearly be able to see what had happened and knowing that Rory was a repeat offender would punish him accordingly for the incident.

Meanwhile I rejoined the race down the order but by half way had made my way back up to 2nd place and even thought I may still be able to catch Rory out front on the road. However my engine began to lose power and run badly and I saw that the temperature gauge was rising. Fearing the worst I reluctantly pulled in to retire to save any further damage to the motor.

At the end of the race I watched Rory’s body language and it was far from celebratory knowing that he had done wrong. Unsurprisingly he was almost immediately called to the Clerk of the Course office. But so as not to be caught out the way I was at Brands Hatch, where the clerk ultimately made the wrong decision because he wasn’t aware of all of the facts, I put in a judicial protest against Rory’s unfair manoeuvre as well.

I was then summoned to the Clerks office to give my version of events. To my delight there was some very clear video footage from the circuit’s own CCTV camera’s which clearly showed Rory’s car cutting across the corner and the curb (scattering a lot of dirt in the process) and then driving straight into the nearside of my car and launching it into the air in the process. Faced with this irrefutable evidence the Clerk of the Course did exactly the right thing and excluded Rory from the results. This was the only fair thing to do in my mind. I have no doubt that I would have repeated my performance of Saturday and driven away from Rory. He just didn’t have the pace to stay with me this weekend and he knew it and that is why he had to stop me by any means that he possibly could!

With Rory excluded; I would be Webcon UK National FF1600 champion. Job done! Not the way I’d wanted to win it but that wasn’t my fault. In fact I can honestly say I’d rather have lost the championship fairly and squarely on the track than have to attempt to win it in the circuit office afterwards. But that choice was taken away from me by the tactics of my rival!

But the drama wasn’t over yet. Rory counter protested the Clerk of the Course verdict to the Stewards of the meeting who reversed the Clerks decision despite the clear video evidence and now the whole matter must go before a hearing at the offices of Motorsport Ireland. So unfortunately it has all turned into a messy business but I can still see many positives in this situation. Unfortunately protests and litigation have become all too common in motorsport and if I am to have a career in the sport better to have experience of it now so that I know how to deal with it if it happens again later on. But whatever happens it has been an incredible debut season. I have won or been on the podium in over 80% of the races I have competed in; not bad for a rookie even if I say so myself. I collected the Sir Jackie Stewart Golden Helmet Trophy along the way and will finish either as champion or runner up in the UK National Championship and hopefully it is not all over yet. I also still lead the Richard Egger Midlands & South Formula Ford championship. There is still the end of season blue riband events the Formula Ford Festival & the Sir Walter Hayes Trophy to come and I am trying my hardest right now to raise the budget to compete in these; but whether I do or not I think its appropriate to say some very big thank you’ s right here and now.

Firstly a big thank to my Team Manager Cliff Dempsey (of Cliff Dempsey Racing) for making all this possible and to my ace mechanic Francie Gibbs (Churchill) for doing a fantastic job for me all year. Also thank you to Bobby King, team mate Cormac O’Neil (Flash) and Tom O’Neil and last but defiantly not least to Michelle Dempsey (the boss) for keeping us all fed well all year.

On the sponsorship front I have of course to thank all my excellent backers; Lamberhurst Corporation, Essex Gas Utilities, ScanDoc, Baines Unit Leasing and my newest sponsors Laserfiche Software. Special mentions have to go to Philip Garner, Michael Sandys, Lynne Baines, Steve Livermore, Edwin Phack and Stephen Donaldson. And finally I must not forget Andreas for this fantastic website!

Footnote to Rory Butcher. I really enjoyed our battles through the season and I think we really helped bring the best out of each other. I even thought we got along well off track although I know its difficult to make real friends with your rivals; but I considered that we had a healthy respect for each others abilities. That is why it has been sad to see you resort to desperate driving tactics in the last two rounds. I thought you were better than that and I’m sorry that our championship must now be settled by a committee rather than out on the track where it should have been.