Festival delight for Robinson and Davidson
ULSTER drivers brought home two top prizes from the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch but missed out on the main award.
Noel Robinson and Alan Davidson, both former Northern Ireland champions at Kirkistown, scored victories in the Masters and Historic categories.
Portadown man Robinson only made a last-minute decision to enter the Masters section on Sunday after a loose plug lead on his Van Diemen saw him fail to progress from his heat in the main category.
Despite starting on the seventh row of the grid, Robinson charged through the field, took the lead just after half-distance and went on to win ahead of the Van Diemens of Tom McArthur and fellow Ulsterman Ivor McCullough, who had also missed out in the heats with a gearbox issue.
McArthur also lost out in the Historic category, where Davidson took the victory in his Mondiale.
But Niall Murray (right) couldn’t repeat his 2017 success in the main Festival event despite winning both his heat and his semi-final.
In a crash-bang final, which saw two red flag incidents and two restarts, Dubliner Murray, the reigning British champion, was involved in a three-way fight for the lead all the way to the finish line.
Murray led for most of the way from pole position in his Van Diemen but was being constantly harried by Josh Smith and Ollie White.
On the final lap, Murray blocked an attempt by Smith to pass on the inside of Paddock Bend, which let White have a run on the pair of them into Druids.
White and Murray both locked up and ran wide at the hairpin, Smith passing both on the inside.
He was able to hold on and beat Murray to the chequered flag by less than a 10th of a second, with White completing the podium. THREE matches down in the Belfast Giants’ enormous 16game road trip and they have four points to show from it.
Two wins over the Lightning in Milton Keynes opened the weekend before they came unstuck against the Guildford Flames on Sunday, a 3-2 loss snapping their winning streak at eight.
Guildford, having not played earlier in the weekend, rode their fresh roster to victory, leaving Giants coach Adam Keefe with mixed feelings.
“Two good wins, but they were against a struggling Milton Keynes side,” said Keefe.
“(Sunday) would have been nice, I thought we deserved more from it but we lost the special teams battle and you can’t do that.
“I thought we were pretty good considering we were three (games) from three (days) and Guildford were sitting at home waiting for us.
“We need to be a little smarter with our play in these scenarios, obviously we took too many penalties, they got three powerplay goals and we got one — that was the game.”
Next week, the Giants continue their away trip with two more testing games against the Manchester Storm and league leaders the Nottingham Panthers.
Keefe (below), who will be hoping to bring Jim Vandermeer, Colin Shields and Patrick Dwyer back onto the roster, is expecting another big test for his side to overcome.
“More of the same,” he said of what he’s expecting. “It’s going to be tough, just like it was (last weekend), and we’re going to need more guys to step up.”
Meanwhile, the final team in the Giants’ Continental Cup group for next month’s third round has been confirmed.
Italian side Ritten Sport complete the line-up for Group E in Belfast alongside the Giants, Medvescak Zagreb (EBEL) and GKS Katowice (Poland).