Dempsey clash means it’s not such a merry Queen of Scots
KNOCKHILL SMRC 10 APRIL
Two drivers stole the headlines as the National Formula Ford 1600 Championship made the trip over the border to Knockhill last weekend. Ammonite Motorsport’s Colin Queen and points leader Jordan Dempsey of Kevin Mills Racing put on a sensational show in the opener for the David Leslie Trophy, but then collided in an equally frenetic second encounter.
Dempsey replicated his seasonopening form by putting his Spectrum on pole for race one, and maintained the lead either side of an early safety-car period following an incident between Shawn
Rashid and Andrew Rackstraw at Clark.
Queen followed Dempsey throughout, and the Ray driver made his decisive move for the lead on the final lap, surprising Dempsey by slicing down the inside under braking for Mcintyres. “I was setting him up all race, but I didn’t expect him to leave me that much room into the corner,” reflected Queen, who beat Dempsey to the line by under half a second. Behind, Lucas Romanek got the better of Jamie Sharp for third after a late lunge to the inside of Duffus
Dip on the final tour.
Queen and Dempsey resumed their battle in the early stages of race two, but made contact at the Hairpin on the fifth lap of
22. That sent both onto the grass, giving Sharp’s BM Racing Medina the lead from Romanek’s Van Diemen. But Sharp’s lead didn’t last long either, as he spun while fighting Romanek at the same corner. Romanek therefore took the victory ahead of Morgan Quinn and Ben Cochrane.
Michael Weddell started the defence of his Mini Cooper Cup title with two wins and a third place as car racing rookie Jack Irvine prevailed in race three. Weddell got the better of polesitter Neil Hose after a safety car restart to build a healthy margin at the front, beating Chad Little to the line by just over half a second.
The top two duked it out on the entry to Duffus at the start of race two, with Weddell using the inside line to maintain the lead. His cause was helped by Ian Munro, who seized second with a late dive to the inside of Little at Mcintyres, giving Weddell enough of a break to double up.
Each of the first two races was won outright by S class driver Craig Blake, but the finale ran without those three cars. Newcomer Irvine started the reversed-grid
contest from pole and made a superb getaway to break clear. He was never headed, although Little got to within half a second on the final lap, with Weddell third.
Reigning C1 Cup champion Ross Dunn edged a thrilling opening race by just 0.016s from Finlay Brunton in a sensational photo finish. Dunn took the lead from polesitter Andrew Davidson around the outside of Mcintyres on lap one and recovered from a last-lap pass from Brunton at the same corner to come out on top. Sam Corson prevailed in a similarly competitive second race, with Dunn and Brunton half a second adrift at the flag.
V8 power dominated the Scottish Classic races, with Russell Paterson leading Tommy Gilmartin in a Morgan 1-2 in the opening bout. But contact between the pair in race two handed John Kinmond’s Rover 3500 the victory.
Steven Gray took the spoils in both Scottish Fiesta ST Cup races, beating his long-time rival Dave Colville and Liam Mcgill respectively.