So my report from the first raceweekend in 2014 and the first time in a Formula Ford Kent.
After a long period without driving races (read since july 2013) and proper test days we started our first free practice on saturday morning to see if the car had no mechanical issues and to get a feeling with the car. Everything went well only I was a bit rusty and set the 4th fastest time.
One hour after free practice we had our qualifying, as I started to low on tyre pressures I had in the beginning not enough grip and didn’t manage to drive a good lap, so I tried to get more heat in the tires and tried to do my fastest lap at the end but they waved with yellow flags so I had to hold back and had only managed 7th time.
Race 1
With my bad qualifying in my mind I was determined to get a good start but as there was decided in the briefing that we had a rolling start and i never done that before I had a terrible start and lost a place before the first corner. I didn’t manage to get pass him quickly and I was losing a lot of time to the others in front of me.
After I’ve passed him finally I easy could pass the next guy and then I had a big gap to the the 5th place but I had the change that they were in a big fight and I managed to close the gap in the last lap and overtake one of them and finished 5th.
Race 2 semi final
With my little progress in race 1 Ive started 5th now. Because I wasn’t happy with my gearing I changed them for this race and hoping to have more speed and better lap times. Now I had a better start and could hold on my fifth place. At the end of the first lap I got a good slipstream and gained a place to fourth.At the end on the second lap I did the same and was third then wit a little gap to the first two.At the end of the third lap I tried the same thing with the guy on second place but he had a higher to speed than me and I couldn’t pass him on the straight (probably he had less wing then me 🙂 . Then I saw that his right rear wheel was coming lose, so I passed him some corners later that lap. After that I had 3,5 sec gap to close. I managed to close the gap but the guy was losing a lot of oil so when I was right behind him I had no grip at all and I didn’t get a good exit at the corners to slipstream him at the straight so I finished second and did the fastest lap of the race.
Race 3 the final
Now starting second I had a change to win this race. I’ve managed to hold on my position at the start but my engine didn’t run well on the exit of the corners, it staggers and I lost my second place at the of the first lap. When I was following my engine temperature was rising and my engine came back to life and we were catching the leader again. At lap 6 of the race I came to wide on the exit of corner 3 (Hugenholtz) and the car bottomed out and turned straight to the barriers on the other side. So I crashed hard and was out of the race. The only positive was that I did set the fastest lap of the race. Unfortunately for the guys who likes some crashes the battery on my onboard cam was dead so I don’t have it on tape.
It would like to thank the other competitors for have a lot fun that weekend and respect for each other on and next to the track and my family for helping me.
I also want to thank Fuchs Lubricants Benelux for their support again this year !!!!
I also want to thank Nospeedlimits.nl for the nice pictures!!!
FLV Competition 