Brands Hatch Formula Ford Festival October 19/20th 2002

What goes around comes around.

I have spent some time regretting some of the decisions I made this season, I have felt that I had cost Nik points in the Championship that were entirely due to schoolboy errors on tyre choice, brake adjustments and one or two tactical errors.

The pressure therefore as we arrived at the final round of the championship at Brands Hatch, was really off. This you may think is rather strange, however, my reason for this was quite simply that we were five points behind Jonathan Loader, and we felt that we could only do our best and it was on Jonathan’s shoulders to carry the burden of loosing the Championship.

Qualifying

The first qualifying session was with the Duratec powered car. The Saturday was bright and dry as Nik quickly established pole position. For the duration of the qualifying session Nik came in and went out again still on the pole. We had fitted new tyres and Nik decided to come in early and save them for the pinto car, this proved costly as on the last lap of the session the Gunn car made pole by a tenth of a second.

The second qualifying session for the pinto powered cars and the Championship race was held again on the Saturday. Nik went out with the car on the same settings as his previous trip to Brands and the first ten minutes saw the pole change between Loader, Roger, Dudley and Johnson. From about half way through Nik went onto P1 and despite changes for the other places, he remained there with Dudley and Roger P2 and P3 with Jonathan on P4.

The Pinto Race

Sunday dawned cold and dry but with rain forecast for later in the day. The Championship race was to be run first and about an hour before it was due to start the rain drifted slowly in from the southwest. The rain was only light but the track became very slippery and as a result many of the cars in the FF race went off.

Wets were readied and it was a mixed grid of wet and dry runners as we headed for the assembly area. Nik and I agreed that he would run on slicks, Jonathan was also on slicks and it was irrelevant what any one else chose as we could not gamble on being clever and getting it wrong.

The lights went to red, revs, revs, green!, away they went. Nik followed by Rodger, Dudley and the pack, thirty cars headlong into Druids and then downhill in Graham Hill bend on a wet and slippery track was a sure fire recipe for carnage. Nik came out followed by Dudley, but in the pack a spinning Jonathan Loader dropped him back in the clutches of the pursuing pack. Nik charged on, back of the car snaking and Dudley in hot pursuit. The front two pulled away only to be brought back as black and yellow flags closed up the pack as damaged cars were recovered. Two slow laps and away again, Nik managed to keep Dudley at bay whilst they both pulled away from the main body of racers. Jonathan initially dropping back and being overtaken by wet shod runners, but then overtaking them as their tyres expired. It was now down to Nik to keep it on the black stuff as by now he was in amongst the back markers. Lap after lap the class of the two front runners showed as they pulled out from the rest a huge lead, finally Dudley unable to live with the Van Diemen, left Nik to race home the victor, but where was Jonathan, the pack was now so mixed up I had no real idea? tenth, and the Championship was ours.

Both Nik and I felt for Jonathan, a great racer and a gentleman, it was not to be his year despite him winning five races.

The Duratec Race

It was no time to relax though; we needed to prepare for the Duratec race. The rain came on stronger and we fitted the wets and changed to a wet set-up on the car.

The race was delayed for other accidents in the FF races and by the time we wheeled the car out the rain had almost stopped and to the great credit of Paul, Nik’s friend and helper, who pointed this out, I made a quick decision to go for slicks. Nik was somewhat surprised as we carried the jack and slicks down to the assembly area, we fitted them quickly and sent panic through a couple of the front runners who also bolted for a change of tyres, too late as the whistle was blown and out onto the track we went.

The race started and back down the grid went Nik as he slithered around with little grip and cold tyres. Cars came off and a big accident claimed a couple more runners. Ten laps in and the gap seemed to stabilise between the Gunn, which was leading by over half a lap from Nik, who was now back in sixth but keeping station.

The Carbir flew past and around lap fifteen the gap stated to close as Nik made up a place. Lap after lap his progress accelerated as one after another he picked off the leading cars. Lap twenty and he was challenging the fading Carbir and then onto the Swift. There was no way Nik was going to catch the leader, two laps left and the length of the straight apart, but wait, he was just flying as the track dried and he gobbled up the stagnated Gunn. Last lap and as we watched he closed on the Gunn around Clearways, we could not see, and hardly dared watch , we ran through the pit garages as the commentator went crazy and people waved from every corner and vantage point, as we emerged from the pit lane the cars crossed the finish line together. I looked up at the electronic score board; Position one car ONE, a tenth of a second between them.

What goes around comes around, some days you just get it all right!

Epilogue

As it is the end of the current season I would like to say a sincere thank you to all racers and organisers and helpers for the genuine friendship you have shown Nik and his crew.

I would also like to thank Ralph Firman and all the people at Van Diemen, Alan at Scholar and a special thank you to Glen Searl for his great engine.

Lastly a wish for the speedy recovery of Brian Bergman Field.