Official Feeder Series News

SILVERSTONE, England – A little over a year since he finished fifth in the 2016 Mazda Road to Indy USF2000 $200k Scholarship Shootout, Niall Murray picked up where he left off in the British Racing & Sports Car Club’s Avon Tyres National Formula Ford championship.

With a victory and two further podium finishes from the opening round of the season Murray left Silverstone following the opening three races on April 7/8 with an 11-point advantage over Luke Cooper.

Roseland Furniture’s Joey Foster claimed the first win of the 2018 season. Polesitter Foster made a good start but was quickly passed by fellow front row starter Josh Fisher, only for Fisher to spin on the damp track three laps into the 14 lap race. Murray and Michael Moyers picked up the challenge to Foster and Murray briefly claimed the race lead just before half distance before falling behind Foster and Moyers.
Foster eventually finished a second ahead of Moyers, with Murray a further half a second back.

Fisher recovered from the early spin to take fourth place ahead of a four-car battle for fifth. Jamie Thornburn led Cooper, Rory Smith and Stuart Gough across the line. 

Murray managed one better in race two, but narrowly missed out on the race win after Cooper passed in his Van Diemen RF99 on the penultimate lap.

Moyers led a tight six-car pack at the front of the field for the first half of the race while Foster, Murray, Fisher, Thornburn and Cooper battled for position. Thornburn dropped down the order as he suffered with fuel pick up issues while Fisher fell back due to a damaged trackrod he picked up after contact with Murray.

Murray was promoted into the lead after a mistake by Moyers at Copse dropped him from first to fifth, but he couldn’t put any distance between himself and the chasing Cooper. The 2016 champion made Cooper work hard for the victory and the pair actually made contact as Cooper tried a move down the inside on the pit straight, but the Swift SC16 driver eventually managed to find a way past.

Moyers recovered to take the final podium position, ahead of Matt Round-Garrido – who had started from 10th – and race one winner Foster.

Murray finally managed to take the top step of the podium in the final race of the weekend. The Team Dolan driver charged up through the field after starting seventh, managing to take the race lead by the end of the third lap. From there it was a relatively simple race for Murray as he managed the gap to the rest of the field, eventually finishing 6.5s ahead of his closest rival. 

Behind him, Foster, Gough and Jack Wolfenden battled for position, until Wolfenden and Foster collided. Polesitter Gough was briefly promoted back into second, before Murray’s team-mate Round-Garrido got past. Round-Garrido held off attacks from Gough and Cooper to take his first podium in the National series in second place.

Cooper rounded out the podium, putting him second in the standings, while Foster’s ninth place was enough to put him third. 

Word by courtesy of Bethonie Waring, and photo by Rachel Bourne