Rd's 15 & 16 Brands Hatch
Race Report & Photographs: Paula Hamilton 

Qualifying - Round 15 - Sunday 24th August 

I arrived at Brands Hatch early Sunday morning after an excellent run around the M25. The expected Bank Holiday traffic jams did not happen I am glad to say. Team Jato Motorsport were in good spirits for qualifying and some remarkable lap times were to be set. The cars went out on circuit at 10.00am sharp and the weather was dry but cloudy. Within 7 laps the Japanese driver Yuya Sakamoto set an astonishing time of 47.111. Only 1 second separated the top 23 drivers which simply shows how closely matched the teams are this season. Tony Rodgers qualified in 13th place overall with a time of 47.569 and 10th fastest in Championship class. James Harris had a fairly successful session in Scholarship class with a time of 47.834 which put him in 20th place on the grid and 7th in his class. The very best times were set early in the session but it was interesting to hear complaints from various competitors that the quality of the tyres varied a good deal.

Round 15 - Sunday 24th August 

At 2.50pm the weather had improved and was now sunny but dry still as the cars formed up on the grid. This was to become an odd race because very few cars passed each other. My thoughts were that as the season was drawing to it's conclusion, all the drivers were being ultra cautious. It's better to be say 5th in the championship than to go down to 8th due to a rash move out on circuit. Having said that Antonio Perez suddenly slowed in front of Tony Rodgers very early on in the race but apart from a damaged nose cone to his Ray, Tony continued as did Antonio. Yuya Sakamoto dominated the race from pole and former Team Jato Motorsport driver Alx Danielsson managed to keep the rest of the field behind him to finish 2nd. Alx drove a very well judged race and he made his Ray 
twice the size that it actually is in order to prevent the others drivers from getting past him. A superb drive by him, no wonder Motorsport News nominated him Drive of the Day in the FF Championship. Speaking to him later he said that the Ray's handling deteriorated later in the race and that explained why he had eight cars queueing up behind him. Congratulations to Hideto Yasuoka for winning the Scholarship Class. 

Apart from the incident with Perez, Tony had a good race and finished 13th overall and 11th in the Championship Class. James finished in 17th place overall and 5th in the Scholarship Class. Not a great result for the team but more points were added to each drivers tally. 

Round 16 - Monday 25th August 

I arrived at Brands around 7.30am and the temperature had dropped considerably from the recent record breaking heatwave. The day was largely overcast and a chilly wind had set in. When the cars lined up on the Grid for the second race of the meeting, the sun started to break through which pleased me as I stationed myself up at Druids in order to take my photos. Prior to that the light was more reminiscent of a late October/early November day. 

This proved to be quite an eventful race as Sakamoto and Danielsson changed places at the front of the field. Valle Makela took advantage of their scrap and joined them in 3rd place. On lap 8 of the 20 lap race, Danielsson slowed for a yellow flag but Makela did not and passed him for the lead. Hoping that the Race Officials would penalise Makela, Alx tucked in behind him and they finished the race in that order. Although Makela was on the top step for the podium photoshoot afterwards, he was later demoted to second place for gaining an unfair advantage. Alx Danielsson was very smart by not trying to overtake Makela and possibly putting the two of them out of the race. Tom Kimber-Smith took 3rd place from Sakamoto. Hideto Yasuoka again finished first in the Scholarship Class. 

Tony Rodgers was having an excellent race until lap 7 when Marko Asmer made an ill judged and desperate lunge on him up at Druids. I was there and saw it all happen. All this did was put both drivers out of the race and I thought that Clerk of the Course Ray Sumner's riot act at a previous driver's briefings was beginning to get through to some of the drivers. Obviously not !!! 

James made up some places in his class but sadly towards the end of the race had an excursion over the gravel coming out of Clark Curve only to lose the place he had fought so hard to achieve. He admitted to me afterwards that he simply pushed too hard. A lesson learnt, I am sure for James, who is rapidly gaining experience in his first full season of Formula Ford racing. James finished 18th overall and 7th in the Scholarship Class. 

Talking to Jeff Harris afterwards, he was very disappointed that Tony was punted off the circuit but was reasonably happy with James's performance over the weekend. We all agreed that James is having a sharp learning curve this season but overall he has performed very well in his first year of Single Seat racing. 

Onwards and upwards as they say. Donington Park in two week's time is the 
penultimate meeting of the season and Tony especially cannot wait to get there as 
it is one of his favourite circuits.

Joey Foster, Tony Rodgers & Alx Danielsson


James Harris


Tony Rodgers


Tony Rodgers


James & Mark Gunton


James, Mark & Jeff Harris


James in McLaren Bend


Tony in Clark Curve


Tony & Charlie Donnelly in Druids


James in Druids


Tony's stricken Ray & Marko's Van Dieman