Walter Hayes Trophy 2017
12th November 2017
What a way to end my first season of racing cars. 10th out of 116 cars in the largest Formula Ford race in the world.
The Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone is where I made my race car debut a year ago last weekend, I can’t believe how the time has flown!
This season has been invaluable for me, I have learnt so so much.
We were drawn to compete in heat 5, Qualifying didn’t go as well as hoped, I opted for a different setup to my teammates, a move which didn’t pay off. We would start the first race in 8th.
The track was still drying in the race, I started on the right hand side of the grid, off of the racing line. I had a really fun race to end up finishing 4th with the Fastest Lap.
This put us in 10th for the start of the Semi-final. I needed to finish in the top 18 to qualify for the final. My initial getaway wasn’t too bad but unfortunately two drivers in front of me made contact and I was forced off track and had to muscle may way back on. We joined back down in around 15th place. However once again I had an awesome race, some great moves to make my way back up to finish 6th.
Having qualified for the Grand Final, we would start 11th, avoiding incidents in front, I fell down a couple of places, and fell further down when the car in front missed a gear when I was sat right behind him. I took avoiding action narrowly missing him, however I got all over the grass and lost huge momentum going down the long back straight, losing a handful of positions, dropping me down to 18th. I kept my head up and despite a ton of yellow flags on track stopping me from passing in critical overtaking spots, worked my way all the way back to finish 10th.
An extremely good result and an awesome way to mark a year of racing.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Kevin Mills Racing Team for making me so welcome this year, for giving me biblical proportions of banter and for being great friends. I want to specially thank my mechanic Alex for working with me all year and making it to the race at the weekend when he was meant to have been working for a truck Racing team at Brands. Cheers mate!
A massive thank you to my Mum & Dad, Jim, Jamie, Adam, Pete, Dave, Jamie J, Steve, Henry, Jackie and Chloe for all coming at the weekend! Really appreciate the support and so happy you all seemed to enjoy it!
A big thank you to all my other friends and family who continue to support me and give me best wishes throughout the weekend.
Thank you to everyone who donated towards Cancer Research UK over the weekend. I will be continually fundraising for this amazing charity and look forward to announcing a couple of events in aid of CRUK in the New Year.
I would also like to take this opportunity to once again thank all my partners for their support this year!
Walero Motorsports Robbos MotorSport Photography Restaurante Marbella Patio
Well that brings racing to a close for 2017, What a Year! I still have a few things going on in the background which I shall continue to keep you all updated with over the winter.
Thank you!
