At my last two race events I have fallen victim to another competitors bad driving. On both occasions there was nothing I could do to prevent the incidents happening. Neither was caused by anything that I was doing on track. I suppose I am disappointed by the desperate measures that some drivers will employ to prevent another driver from finishing ahead of them.

Last weekend I entered the Martin Donnelly Trophy event at Kirkistown in Northern Ireland. I was the only English driver entered amongst an almost 40 car field of some of the best & most experienced FF1600 drivers around. Some of these drivers were winning FF1600 races before I was born! The occasion is considered to be the Blue Riband event of Irish Formula Ford.

The large entry meant that the grid was split into two qualifying heats. The qualifying session gave me notice on what was to come with certain drivers really trying to intimidate me on track and do all they could to prevent me from setting a fast qualifying time. Under the circumstances I was pleased to be third fastest in my group.

In my qualifying heat I lined up on the grid behind poleman Robert Barrable and Neville Smyth in 2nd. It was a good race with no quarter given and the three of us enjoyed battling for the lead. I was pleased to outfox Smythe to finish 2nd and set the fastest lap in my heat in the process. As our heat ran slightly slower than heat one I would start from grid four for the final race.

I made a good start in the final and was nicely tucked into 2nd place but it was a lead group of eight cars! Going into Colonial corner on lap two Neville Smythe ran down the outside of the line where there really wasn?t any room. I was tucked in behind Mike Edgar. Smythe then committed what has been described as all observers as a professional foul and I was his victim. He put his offside front wheel into the side of my car locking with my nearside rear and sending me up into the air and spinning off the track. He knew exactly what he was doing and had already executed a similar move earlier in the day on another hapless victim.

Previously I?d had a lot of respect for Neville Smythe as a seasoned Formula Ford campaigner. I thought he was hard but fair. Sadly the fact that he has resorted to such tactics has changed my opinion of him. It was a desperate and potentially dangerous move and those type of antics shouldn?t play any part in our sport. But I am also a great believer in what goes around comes around and next time I share a track with Mr Smythe I will know what to expect.

I did rejoin the race well down the order but worried that my leap through the air had over revved the engine I decided to retire to prevent any potential further damage. Luckily everything seemed to check out ok afterwards.

Apart from the obvious incident I really enjoyed the weekend. The majority of the Irish boys are hard but fair and it was a good crac as they say. Particular thanks go to Mike Edgar, John Ferguson and Noel Dunne. It was a privilege racing with you all.

A big thank you to my Team Manager Cliff Dempsey for bringing me over to Ireland for this event and to my mechanic Francie who did a superb job all weekend and well done to my team mate Cormac O?Neill on his excellent result finishing 5th.

We now look forward to the next event which is the final two rounds of the Webcon UK National Formula Ford championship at Mondello Park in Ireland on 12th & 13th September.

Yesterday I was privileged to participate in the Grand Prix Shootout competition at Bruntingthorpe. This is a fantastic initiative thought up by Peter Windsor and David Fleming and now has the support of the Driver Database website.

The concept is to take an up and coming driver all the way to Formula One, initially through a fully funded season in Formula BMW Europe (supporting F1 Grand Prix events) and then via a share sale against future earnings to fund that driver?s career all the way to the pinnacle of the sport. This is a way of raising capital that has worked very well for other drivers including Justin Wilson. Obviously the successful candidate will not only have to be a very talented driver but also someone that the judges feel is marketable to the public at large and to the all important business community that are likely to invest in this scheme.

That said I would recommend any driver to take part if they have the opportunity simply for the experience alone. This is a full day of driver coaching, presentation and media interviews and the experience and enjoyment factor are invaluable. We also received some very good hospitality throughout the day.

For me the highlight of the day was the on track coaching session with Rob Wilson. Anyone within the motorsport community will know what a highly respected driver coach Rob is, so much so that he has been sought after by many of the world?s top drivers including current F1 stars. Rob has a very simple but effective method of coaching and he is clearly still a very quick driver himself. I had a great time with him and will certainly be employing all of the tips he passed onto me during the session. He also has a great sense of humour and a knack of being able to put you under pressure but keep you relaxed all at the same time. This really was a lot of fun!

As well as Rob top current drivers including Danny Watts, Robbie Kerr and Stephen Jelley also coach and access on the scheme so it?s a marvellous opportunity to receive some one to one tuition of the highest standard.

Thanks to everyone who gave me the opportunity to take part including David Fleming and Adam Jones of 100cc PR and to Andreas at Driver Database for making me aware of the competition. I hope whatever happens that the Grand Prix Shootout achieves everything it sets out to do.

It was almost a perfect day at Brands Hatch yesterday and then it all went wrong in a heartbeat.

I had taken pole position in qualifying and then followed this with a lights to flag victory in the first twenty minute race which was part of a championship double header. I felt confident and my car was performing superbly. My main championship rival Rory Butcher had been able to put me under some severe pressure in the first half of the race but I had been able to open a comfortable gap on him in the 2nd half of the race to take the win. It was very satisfying not only to take another win but also to do it in front of my sponsors and many of my friends, who were in attendance for the day as Brands Hatch is my local circuit.

I was therefore on pole position for race two and made a good start but as expected Rory kept the pressure on. However as the race progressed I was able to just gradually edge out a gap, not enough to feel comfortable, but enough to allow me to drive without being defensive. However in the closing stages of the race the back markers came into the equation and I have to say I was very disappointed at the almost complete absence of blue flags and the unawareness of some of the drivers that were being lapped. I was severely held up because of this and Rory was able to reclose the gap. But as you know in motor racing catching is one thing but passing is another.

On what turned out to be the penultimate lap Rory went for what I can only describe as a desperate move. I didn?t know too much about it at the time but I have since watched some very clear video footage of the incident. Rory was close behind me going to into Graham Hill bend when he attempted to force his car alongside where there wasn?t any room. He took to the grass, lost control, and collided with the rear end of my car throwing me into a spin which put me onto the grass on the other side of the track. Rory himself spun but as he was on the tarmac was able to get going ahead of me. Meanwhile the following Mathew Parr and David Grady who had been some distance behind Rory and I were able to get passed into 1st & 2nd places. With only a lap left I fought hard to catch up to Rory in 3rd but couldn?t do it. I naturally felt aggrieved.

The track marshal at the nearest post completed an incident report and as expected Rory was summoned to see the clerk of the course. However he escaped with a severe reprimand and the results were allowed to stand. As you can imagine I was less than happy with this. I have always got along very well with Rory off track but I feel on this occasion he had unfairly benefitted and gained an unfair advantage from a collision which he was completely to blame for. My team manager Cliff Dempsey was also very unhappy with the situation and he accompanied me to the clerk?s office when I was called up to be informed of the result of the investigation into the incident. The clerk told me that if I was unhappy with his decision I had 30 minutes from the declaration of that decision to lodge an appeal which I said I would do even though it was going to cost ?190. At this point my friends and sponsors who were still at the track had a collection to raise the appeal fee, so strongly did they feel that an injustice had occurred and I?d like to thank them all very much for their generosity. However having then completed all of the appeals documentation I was then told by the MSA Steward that I actually had no right of appeal here as I was only a third party in this incident! How can they say I was a third party when I was a blameless victim of another competitors bad driving and why tell me I can appeal the clerks decision if I am unhappy with it and then tell me I have no right to??!! I feel badly let down with the officials of the meeting on this occasion and to be quite frank I feel they were more interested in getting home than seeing that justice prevailed!! I might add that I wasn?t asking to be reinstated to 1st place which I obviously couldn?t be or have Rory disqualified or excluded from the result of the race I simply felt that Rory and my finishing order should be reversed which would be a fair reflection of the situation and mitigate my loss.

I?d like to say a big thank you to all my sponsors and friends that came along to support me this weekend; I?m really sorry I couldn?t get the win double for you all but it wasn?t to be. Also a big thank you to the Cliff Dempsey Race Team who as ever did a brilliant job; I feel just as let down for you guys as myself. Finally congratulations to Mathew Parr on achieving his first Formula Ford victory.

Castle Combe in Wiltshire is a circuit that, despite harsh economic times, always attracts a very strong local entry and particularly strong is the circuit?s own Formula Ford 1600 championship with a number of specialists among the regular thirty plus drivers or so racing every month.

For this reason we expected a very strong level of competition with a number of the locals also choosing to enter the Webcon UK National Championship round taking place the same weekend.

Kevin Mills Racing know a thing or two about Castle Combe, Kevin himself having won the championship here no less than three times. Kevin now runs local hot shoe Marcus Allen, who won the last round here and for this weekend my main championship rival Rory Butcher was very shrewd in also choosing to run with Kevin?s team.

For one reason or another circumstances seemed to conspire against us for this meeting and I think sometimes you just have to be philosophical and say ?it just wasn?t meant to be?. Firstly we were unable to book in for a full test day which we badly needed having not seen the circuit before. Testing is so popular here that the day was fully booked. However the circuit did their very best to accommodate us and we did manage to book in for a half day on Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately the forecast dry bright weather turned out to be extremely wet monsoon conditions and there was so much standing water on the circuit that we did very little running. However what we did do made us confident that we had a very good wet set up.

Unfortunately come race weekend the conditions were very hot and sunny which was great for the very large crowd of spectators but not so good for us. We did manage to get 25 minutes practice in the dry on Saturday morning and even though we ran very old rubber we were only 4 tenths off of the fastest lap so felt pretty good about that.

Qualifying was early on Sunday and already it was very hot. I didn?t get the track position I wanted when the car at the head of my queue failed to get going and I then had to work my way through the pack to get clear track. Meanwhile Marcus and Rory were away at the front and towed each other round to set a very good time. Every time I was on a flying lap I seemed to have it spoilt by a yellow flag or car spinning in front of me and I frustrating could only manage third best time although I was only a few hundredths shy of Marcus on grid two.

It was a very long wait from qualifying to our race at 4pm Sunday afternoon and I used the spare time to watch some of the other races at different points of the circuit to see if I could pick up any useful information. And to have a look at some of the interesting machinery around the race paddock, particularly the super karts. Eventually the hours ticked away and it was time for our race.

As the red lights went out I made a very good start but Rory on pole and Marcus next to him on the front row both made poor ones but boxed me in. This allowed Hetherington next to me on the grid, who had made a flying start to dive down the outside of the pair of them in the drag up to the first corner but I had nowhere to go and had to back off the throttle.

Hetherington then outraced himself allowing Marcus and Rory to drive past but there wasn?t sufficient room for me to squeeze through as well as he recovered and blocked forcefully. Defensive driving by Hetherington the next lap held me up and allowed Marcus and Rory to break free and when I eventually out braked car no.20 on lap two I was already three seconds behind the lead pair.

I worked really hard to close the gap and made up a few tenths but the next incident confirmed that it wasn?t going to be my weekend. Rory ran over one of the plastic marker posts at the first chicane as he ran the curb and the impact through the post high into the air and catapulted it towards me where it hit me full in the face. While these posts are very light it did give me a momentary shock and I was also concerned that the force of the impact may have loosened or cracked my visor. Thankfully it didn?t but I could see from the post race data that the incident caused me to lose a vital seven tenths of a second to my two rivals out front.

From that point on I had a fairly lonely race. I was comfortably clear of the ongoing battle for 4th place behind me but not close enough to Rory and Marcus ahead to pick up any sort of tow. My only hope was that the lead two would battle or tangle and delay each other but unfortunately they didn?t and Marcus Allen in the end took a well earned victory from Rory to win his 2nd Castle Combe event in as many months. He also became the first driver other than Rory or me to win a UK National championship race this year such as been our dominance so far.

I was naturally disappointed with the result and that in itself says a lot about the standards we have achieved this year that a rookie driver should not be happy with a third place finish! In fact apart from the DNF in my debut race at Mondello when I had clutch failure it is my worst race finish to date!

The race commentator put it into perspective on the podium when he said I had done extremely well to achieve a podium with so little previous running at the circuit and if that was my poorest result to date I must be having a pretty good season which of course I am.

Big congratulations to Marcus Allen on his win and well done to Rory for taking 2nd.Also well done to my team mate Cormack O?Neill who worked very hard to come through to 6th after a difficult start.

So we just have to accept that this one got away from us a little (but not too much) and look forward to the next one at Brands Hatch. Luckily I do not have too long to wait as its next weekend!