National reports: Brands Hatch Fford Festival; Snetterton; Castle Combe; Donington Park; Thruxton; Silverstone
Just like last year, a Formula Ford 1600 National Championship frontrunner who had gone a little under the radar heading into the biggest event of the season hit top form to claim success in the Formula Ford Festival.
For Jonathan Browne in 2019, read Rory Smith in 2020. Browne was the man who Smith had to overcome in the final but, unlike the Irishman last year, it wasn’t a case of leading from the front all weekend.
Drawn in arguably the toughest heat, Smith qualified his B-M Racing Medina JL18 down in fourth. But, in sweeping rain, he made one place off the line, and then used the Medina’s traction to take a much tighter line at Clearways than his rivals. He passed both Bryce Aron (Low Dempsey Racing Ray GR18) and Jordan Dempsey’s Kevin Mills Racing Spectrum 011D there on his way to a comfortable win.
“I’ve done it before and I know that it can be quite effective, so I had that in my back pocket ready to go as soon as the rain came down,” admitted the 21-year-old. On pole position for his less-wet semi-final, Smith could not resist a charging Neil Maclennan and had to settle for second, leaving him fourth on the grid for the final.
Browne, meanwhile, had continued his extraordinary form from the 2019 Festival to extend his winning streak to five by claiming heat and semi-final victories in his LDR Ray. He had to come from behind for the first time in his semi, closing up to and passing Team Dolan man Ross Martin (Van Diemen RF99) as the pair contended with traffic.
Therefore it was Browne who started the final from pole, with Maclennan alongside, and Martin and Smith filling row two. Changeable weather was a feature of the weekend and made set-up decisions even more tricky than usual. The track was rarely – if ever – completely dry, but neither did it often stay fully wet throughout a race. Now with the sun out and a dry line starting to appear where its rays could reach, Browne got the jump and led away from Maclennan and Smith. But Smith dispatched
Maclennan with his favoured move at Clearways on lap two and immediately set about challenging for the lead. Browne was having to defend for his life, repelling Smith’s attacks lap after lap, which in turn gave Maclennan a sniff of second each time Smith was rebuffed. Browne was able to cover the inside line at Paddock Hill Bend, Druids, Surtees and, crucially, Clearways.
“Unfortunately, I think Jonathan cottoned on,” said Smith. “Everyone else was just doing the wet line [on the outside] but he worked that out and was going tight. So I thought, ‘This is the only place I’m getting by him so I’m going to have to make my car really narrow.’”
Just after half-distance, that’s exactly what Smith did, cutting across the kerb to hug the inside and take the lead as Browne’s defensive line left him running wider on the exit. That allowed Maclennan to get a run on Browne too and the Scot completed the move around the outside at Paddock. “Rory was just all over me and I was struggling to keep him behind,” admitted Browne.
Smith opened a two-second gap over the next two laps but had his lead wiped out by a safety car. Both he and Maclennan locked their brakes entering Paddock, but
Maclennan’s wheels touched the painted run-off area and sent him into the barriers.
“I couldn’t let him get away,” said Maclennan. “Once he got by Jonathan, I knew he was starting to break away so
I just had to make a do-or-die move on Jonathan and try to keep onto Rory.”
Reigning National champion Maclennan’s weekend had started badly when he qualified fifth for his heat, with tyre pressures too high for the drying track.
That also caused excessive wear and left him gripless for the race in which he trailed home sixth, nearly 30s behind dominant winner Martin. Choosing to use his new tyres in the semi-final aided
Maclennan’s fightback, but his bid for Festival victory would end in the gravel. “At the end of the day, you’re there to win it,” he said. “I’d probably be just as annoyed coming second as binning it.”
Smith confidently dealt with the extra hurdle thrown at him, judging the restart to perfection and reeling off the remaining three laps to claim the Festival crown.
“I knew that if I got a good safety car restart, I had the pace,” he said. “Luckily our set-up worked so well that I put my foot down and it just went. The Medina as a car, that’s what its strength is. It’s just got insane traction and it helps in situations like that.”
It was the first Festival win for B-M Racing, but a second for the Medina chassis and team boss Andy Brickles, who engineered Wayne Boyd to his 2015 success.
Behind Browne in second, a strong run from Team USA scholar Aron looked set to be rewarded with third before Martin prised an opening for himself and Team Dolan team-mates Matt Cowley and Chris Middlehurst, whose chances were both hampered by failing to get off the line very quickly in their semi-final.
When Martin ran wide at Clearways, Cowley made the podium for the second year running from Middlehurst, Aron and Maxwell Esterson. Dempsey could only manage seventh after struggling all weekend to find the set-up sweet spot on his Spectrum in the changeable conditions.
Success for Smith more than made up finishing third in the National Championship for the second year running in a campaign that might have played out differently had he not lost a win in the opener at Oulton Park due to a red-flag countback.
“This year we’ve always been really fast but just not managed to get the results,” he said. “So to do well at the big event is amazing. Brands Hatch isn’t one of my strongest tracks but the boys got the set-up absolutely spot-on.”