National reports: Silverstone; Cadwell Park; Oulton Park; Knockhill; Brands Hatch
After a long search for his maiden victory, Steve Foden finally ended the drought with a brace of wins during an action-packed round of the Mazda MX-5 Championship on the Silverstone National layout.
Foden spun down the order in the first encounter in damp conditions, as Fraser Fenwick took the honours after a thrilling six-car lead battle. Following his hat-trick of wins at the opening event, Jack Brewer led early on from Fenwick, who had his AB Motorsport team-mate Oliver Allwood for company behind.
Brewer then ran deep into Maggotts and dropped to fourth, but soon recovered to contest the lead with Fenwick, the pair swapping places several times. But, on the final lap, Brewer was spun around from behind by Allwood and dropped to seventh, allowing Fenwick a clear run to the flag.
Brian Trott moved ahead of Fenwick at the beginning of race two, with a rain shower before the start making the track treacherous. Brewer dropped out of contention after spinning on the exit of Luffield and collecting Zak Oates, and early drama also dropped Fenwick down the order, as a four-way fight developed at the front.
Trott traded the lead with team-mates Allwood and Matt Pollard, as Foden stormed from 19th on the grid to join the battle. Foden then worked his way past the AB Motorsport trio into first, while Trott dropped to fourth after trying to retake Foden into Brooklands. Pollard spun exiting Copse on the final lap, also compromising
Allwood in the process, with Foden pulling clear to take an elusive win ahead of Trott.
Despite leading the early stages of race three, Foden slipped to third after being passed by Trott and Allwood at Luffield. Allwood then took to the front one lap later after going three-wide with Trott and Foden on the pitstraight.
The trio went side-by-side again next time by, with Foden sweeping around the outside into Copse to regain the advantage, which he retained to the finish. Allwood beat three cars across the line to take second ahead of Trott, who took his third podium finish of the weekend.
National Formula Ford produced similarly frenetic racing, with Max Esterson taking his first two wins in the series, despite coming to blows with chief title rival Alex Walker in race two. Threetime Walter Hayes Trophy winner Joey Foster led the early stages of race one in his Firman after setting a blistering pace in qualifying. But he couldn’t break clear on a circuit notorious for slipstreaming, with recent David Leslie Trophy winner Chris Middlehurst climbing from fourth on the grid to head a five-way lead battle.
Points leader Walker moved into second, ahead of Esterson, as Foster scrapped for fourth with Formula Ford Festival winner Rory Smith. Foster then started to move forwards again, passing Esterson before lining up a move for second on Middlehurst, who had lost the lead to Walker.
But Esterson spun Foster around at
Maggotts after trying to retake third, with Smith also losing ground after taking evasive action. Having come out of the collision unscathed, Esterson passed both Middlehurst and Walker in the space of two corners to take the lead with three laps to go and eventually the win, the trio covered by 0.6 seconds at the line.
The earlier incident earned Esterson a five-place grid penalty for race two, allowing Middlehurst to start from pole on a slippery track. But it was rookie Thomas Mills who surprised early on by leading for Kevin Mills Racing, as team-mate Walker pressured Middlehurst for second. A mistake dropped Mills behind Middlehurst briefly, before he retook the place, with Walker following through into second. The lead trio were joined in the closing stages by the recovering Esterson and Foster, the latter having started from 10th.
After passing Middlehurst, Esterson tried to take second from Walker on the Wellington Straight, but hit the back of his rival in dramatic fashion. This sent Walker out of control into Middlehurst at Brooklands before making secondary contact with Esterson, who was spun around. Walker retired with broken suspension, while Middlehurst rejoined the lead battle, having remarkably emerged undamaged.
Mills’ hopes of a maiden win were dashed on the penultimate lap after running wide at Brooklands, allowing the experienced Middlehurst and Foster through. Mills tried to fight back on the final tour, but had to settle for third, with Middlehurst holding off a charging Foster by 0.086s to take his second win of the season.
Low Dempsey Racing’s Esterson passed polesitting team-mate Colin Queen off the line in the reversed-grid finale and built a commanding two-second advantage over Middlehurst, before a big crash for KMR driver Lucas Romanek at Luffield brought an early end to proceedings.
Walker recovered from the back of the grid to finish eighth, but it was not enough to prevent Esterson from taking the lead of the championship.
Honours were shared across three close races in the Mazda MX-5 Supercup, with reigning champion Samuel Smith taking his first win of the season in the opening encounter. Patrick Fletcher came out on top in a battle with Smith to take his third victory of the campaign in race two, which was interrupted by a late safety car period.
Jack Harding took advantage of starting from reversed-grid pole to win race three, beating Smith by less than a second after on-the-road runner-up Adam Bessell was disqualified for overtaking under yellow flags.
Despite starting from the back as a result of their opening round success, the Uvio/ Hofmann’s Lotus crew was victorious once again in the four-hour Fun Cup race.
It took just 20 laps for Fabio Randaccio to climb through the field to the front, but contact with another car necessitated an unscheduled stop to fix a bodywork issue, dropping them over 30s behind reigning champion Team Olympian. But an engine issue put Olympian out at the halfway stage, handing Randaccio and Scott Fitzgerald control of the race and eventual victory.