Formula Ford Festival 2022

24th October 2022

Well, we didn’t have the best ending to our Formula Ford Festival this year, but boy, were there some highlights and laughs had along the way!

Qualifying did not go to plan. We were comfortably P1 on a constantly evolving track until I backed off to build a gap to the traffic in front. Setting up for the critical final few minutes of the session, the chequered flag came out without any warning three minutes early, completely ruining our session and dropping us back to 7th.

The heat race was very eventful for me, but I really enjoyed it. 😅 I had a terrible start which pushed me further down the grid. Made some progress but then managed to drop into first gear instead of third, resulting in a full 360 spin at Paddock Hill bend. 🥴 Somehow came out of it unscathed and then set back into overtaking two corners later (having fallen to 12th). Managed to get up to 6th before the red flag came out (so pleased legend Matt Rivett was okay after this horrific incident). Got pushed back to 8th at the restart and ultimately managed to finish 4th in the final four laps.

I had an incredible semifinal race! I shot up from 8th on the grid to win in tricky changing track conditions. 😎

Sadly the final did not go so well. I started on the front row of the grid but dropped a couple of positions at the start. The rain began to bucket down on the second lap, and unfortunately at the start of the third lap I got smashed off the track by the car behind. Conditions were so poor that the race was red flagged and declared over having only raced two laps. This should have classified my in 4th, however I was stuck in the gravel from the crash and therefor couldn’t restart without assistance from the marshals, meaning we were deemed a ‘dnf’.

Bit of a shame, but ultimately I had an awesome weekend! To win again after a few years out of the car was an absolutely incredible high for me! Definitely missed that feeling! So good to celebrate after the race with the team!

A huge thanks as always to all the Kevin Mills Racing team for the awesome car!

Looking forward to my favourite event in two weeks time! The Walter Hayes Trophy! Hopefully some more good results to come! 🤞🏻🤞🏻