14/03/2005 - Irish teenager Peter Dempsey made the perfect start to his championship campaign by taking a lights-to-flag victory in the opening round of the MotorSport Vision Formula Ford 1600 series at Brands Hatch.
The County Meath 18-year old made a clean getaway from pole position as the lights set the field off for a 20-lap race, leaving west-countryman Ed Moore and Neville Smyth from Dublin to contest the remaining podium places.
Dempsey put in a series of fastest laps in his 13-year old Swift SC92 to break clear from his pursuers, easing off as the race reached half distance, his lead secure until the chequered flag.
Behind the leading trio, battle raged for the minor placings and valuable championship points. A series of seemingly choreographed overtaking manoeuvres saw Nick Lay's Van Diemen RF90 eventually take sixth place ahead of Mike Gardner's Spirit WL05, making its world debut race outing.
"I'm planning to do the whole championship," said a delighted Dempsey, who also intends to compete in the end-of-season Formula Ford Festival at the Kent track. "We managed to set the car up well in pre-race testing and it was great to start the season in winning style."
Welcome consolation for third-placed Smyth was the 'Avon Best Presented Car Award', offered by tyre supplier Avon, and voted for by the circuit's volunteer marshals. Smyth left the circuit with 25 championship points and two new tyres.
Motor Sport Vision Chief Executive Jonathan Palmer, who himself raced in Formula Ford 1600 early in his motor racing career, presented the podium trio with their trophies, and said the event was what Formula Ford racing was all about. "That's one of the reasons why MotorSport Vision has got behind this series. What cracking racing we saw out there."
Round two of the championship takes place over the weekend on April 9 and 10 at Snetterton in Norfolk. "We look forward to the series building in popularity during the course of the year," said Palmer.
Elsewhere, Mini racing veteran Neven Kirkpatrick came out on top of a thrilling Super Mighty Mini race on Saturday afternoon. Kirkpatrick battled lap after lap with Ben Seyfried and David Kirkpatrick for most of the race, this trio continually swapping places at the front. But it was Neven who eventually emerged as a deserved winner from Seyfried and Kirkpatrick.
In Monoposto Group 1, ComTec Racing team boss Jonathan Lewis admitted he lucked into a race one victory in his Van Diemen FF2000 after Robin Dawe's Dallara F398 Formula 3 car came across a wayward backmarker. "That was Robin's race really," offered Lewis. "But he got taken out so I was lucky."
In race two, Mark Harrison's Dallara F398 crossed the line first while Dartford racer Alan Everitt bounced back from a retirement in Saturday's race to finish second on Sunday in his ex-Mark Blundell Ralt RT3.
John Carding steered his Speads RM03 to a double victory in the two Monoposto Group 2 outings, with John Lord's Jedi Mk6 second on both occasions.
More Mini action came from the Mighty Mini brigade and an outing which saw Charlie Charman take victory from Steve Kirby and Simon Wood.
In the Alfa Romeo races, Nikolaos Manikas triumphed in class F with his Alfa Romeo 33 1.7, while Andy Page's Giulietta 1.8 Turbo took the chequered flag in classes A-E.
Peter Challis's Nissan Primera won the Euro Saloon race at a canter, while in the VSR V6 races, short oval ace Dave Longhurst's Mitsubishi Colt won the first race, and Steve Hall's Audi TT Coupe pipped Keith White's Volkswagen Corrado to the post in the second outing.
Report by: Colin Mann
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