CASTLE COMBE, U.K. – The latest episode of the BRSCC Britcover National 1600 Formula Ford Championship's chase for a place in the Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200k Scholarship Shootout was curtailed by a string of incidents when the series visited Castle Combe last weekend.
Red flags for major crashes in the pack and consequent delays to the timetable while barriers were repaired meant the two-part Race One was just seven laps long, Race Two halted after three laps and Race Three postponed to next month's Silverstone meeting. Two drivers were taken to hospital for checks following the crashes but released without serious injuries that night.
Around the stoppages, 17-year-old Irish racer Jordan Dempsey (pictured above) turned the pace he has shown since rejoining the series last month following an exam pause into his first victory. He had taken his second straight pole position and though he lost the early advantage to fast-starting championship leader Luke Williams, he took the place back on the opening lap and then controlled the restart to seal his breakthrough win.
A weekend of rapid starts helped Williams on a track that he would not class as his strongest. He jumped Dempsey again in Race Two and followed up his Race One second-place with a Sunday win to extend his championship lead.
Williams was also buoyed by several of his main title rivals qualifying further down the order and lacking time to regain ground in the truncated races. Neil Maclennan, James Roe Jr. and Jamie Thorburn were only fifth, sixth and seventh in Race One, and sixth, fifth and eighth respectively in Race Two, when Jack Wolfenden got among them in seventh.
Guesting Combe specialist Michael Moyers was in the thick of the lead fights all weekend and took two third places, each time just ahead of fellow local ace Luke Cooper, who was still recovering from chicken pox.
After his podium finishes at the last two rounds, Keith Donegan was involved in the Race One stopping crash with Michael Eastwell. But he charged from 24th to 10th in just three laps before Race Two was abandoned.
Report by Stefan Mackley/Matt Beer; photo courtesy of Bourne Photographic