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
