Cooper seals FF1600 title despite final-day drama
CASTLE COMBE CCRC 19-20 SEPTEMBER
The Castle Combe Finals weekend may have lacked the traditional atmosphere from a packed crowd due to coronavirus restrictions, but it certainly wasn’t missing drama.
Luke Cooper experienced plenty as he tried to add to his 2018 Castle Combe Racing Club Formula Ford title. After spinning on oil in qualifying, Cooper inexplicably crashed into the barriers on the opening lap of race one while running second behind Felix Fisher, causing a red flag. Fisher, running a new engine in his TM Racing Ray GR06, won the restarted race from pole to close to 14 points from Cooper heading into the finale.
Cooper made the race after his Swift SC18 was frantically repaired with the help of other teams, and he put in a cautious drive to fourth on the road – enough to clinch his second Combe title – while Fisher won comfortably again.
Both races involved a frenetic scrap for second between National Formula Ford points leader Neil Maclennan and 2011 Combe FF1600 champion Robert Hall, Maclennan just edging it on both occasions. He was subsequently excluded from race two after failing to submit his Spectrum 011C for scrutineering.
Cooper added to his title success by winning Sunday’s Formula Ford Carnival,
the race held in memory of veteran marshal Con Evans, who passed away recently. In a field lined with a number of Combe FF1600 champions, it was Cooper who prevailed from pole, finishing four seconds ahead of team-mate Hall, who took his third podium finish of the weekend.
Two-time Combe FF1600 champion Adam Higgins (Van Diemen) briefly led the race before losing out in a three-way battle with the Swift Cooper duo. He eventually held on to third after a long tussle with Chris Acton’s Souley Motorsport Ray. Josh Fisher impressed at the wheel of an ex-marcus Pye Merlyn Mk20 in his first appearance since taking his second Combe FF1600 title last year. Despite it being his first time in the car, Fisher beat more modern machinery to finish eighth, passing James Colborn’s Van Diemen RF88 on the last lap.
Tony Bennett won the CCRC GT Championship despite a spin on the last lap of the deciding race. Bennett all but secured the title in the first encounter, holding off outgoing champion Jamie Sturges’s VW Golf TCR for second by 0.7s, while chief rival Oliver Bull took victory in his Vauxhall Tigra. Bull won again in race two with Bennett, only needing to finish in the points, remarkably spinning his Caterham R300 a couple of corners from home. He dropped one place to sixth but still crossed the line as champion.
Mark Sutton clinched the CCRC Saloons title in his MG ZR after pipping Adam Prebble by one point. Prebble was hampered by issues with his Vauxhall Astra, finishing seventh in the first encounter and a distant second in race two behind older brother Gary, who took two dominant victories in his SEAT Leon Cupra.
Sutton also ran his MG in the CCRC Hot Hatch Challenge, with the returning Jordan Curnow winning both races in a Honda Civic. A multi-car crash within metres of the start caused the first of two red flags in race one after polesitter Mark Wyatt spun his Astra when he was pushed onto the grass, which triggered chaos behind.