Jun
1
Hello again and welcome to my second blog for Motors TV. Rockingham Motor Speedway near Corby was the chosen venue for rounds four, five and six of the Formula Ford Championship of Great Britain and just like Oulton Park six weeks previously the sun was shining all weekend long.
The weekend got off to a great start on Saturday morning as I took pole position for the Kevin Mills Racing squad. At only my second attempt I secured pole from American Josef Newgarden and Jamun’s James Cole who were a mere 0.055 seconds behind after both posting identical times. I would later learn that this was in fact the first pole position for the Kevin Mills Racing team and this made it extra special.
From testing on Friday it was clear that tyre management was going to be a key factor in the outcome of the three races and so I did only 3 flying laps in qualifying before parking my Spectrum chassis in the pit lane. After climbing from the car I proceeded to watch the rest of qualifying from the Fortec timing screens on the pit wall. Nervous times as Rogier De Wit left his run late in the session and was the only man left who could knock me from the top spot. Thankfully, he didn’t!
1. Cammish, 1.22.255 – Definitely one of the best moments of my career to date.
Now qualifying was over I had a long wait until the first race of the weekend later in the afternoon. The Formula 3 drivers had completed two qualifying sessions on new tyres and the track was hot and grippy by the time my race rolled around. Coming from European karting track conditions like these are where I feel most at home so I was feeling confident.
However confidence does not make up for a big lack of experience when it comes to standing starts and this one was about to be a shocker. I was in third by the time we got to the first braking zone for the tight hairpin of turn two. After a squabble with James Cole and De Wit I held position as the safety car was deployed. I’m sure many of you saw the WTCC incident from Pau, well this was nothing like that but it wasn’t exactly text book. The field shot past the safety car on the exit of turn one leaving myself and others wondering if we were meant to be behind it. Newgarden controlled the pace and acted as the safety car until a few laps later it showed up again with its lights off signaling we were going racing next time over the start finish. I was passed by Cole a lap later and settled into fourth. This is where I would finish far ahead of the chasing pack led by De Wit. However the car showed great pace late in the race as I had done my best to preserve the tyres in the middle of the race.
So that was Saturday, up and down but not a bad start. Another victory in the Scholarship class complimented my fourth place.
Sunday morning saw the paddock pay tribute to the late Joe Tandy who was a very popular young man who will be sadly missed. It was great to see Nick Tandy win for the JTR team on Sunday and the whole team showed great character all weekend.
The second race of weekend was at 13:00 – the hottest part of the day and I started from third position. Another bad get away saw me drop to fifth position by turn 2 but I managed to battle my way back up to third at the flag, just behind second place man De Wit. Once again the car was very strong in the final few laps. Our final race of the weekend was the last race of the day and I would start fifth. Another awful start saw me back to seventh at the hairpin behind team mate Alex Jones. After passing him for sixth I found myslef stuck behind the
Jamun of Chrissy Palmer. The eighteen minute race which seemed like an eternity finally came to an end and it couldn’t have come soon enough. I was sick of looking at the gearbox of the number 99 car and did everything I could to get past but Chris drove a very wide car and made it near impossible. A chance at the turn two hairpin was my best effort but Chris had good traction from newer tyres and edged ahead once more as he exited the corner.
So a long hot weekend came to an end. Three Scholarship class wins, a fourth, a sixth and a podium with third place. Not forgetting three awful standing starts and my first pole position.
Next stop Knockhill in Scotland, See you there!
Dan Cammish
