Rd's 17 & 18 Donington Park
Race Report: Paula Hamilton
Photography: Jakob Ebrey


Qualifying - Round 17 - Friday 5th September 

Jeff Harris allowed me to take another weekend off in order for me to go down to the Goodwood Revival Meeting so my report for these two rounds is taken from the MST results and Jeff's own words. It's a shame that major meetings clash on the Racing Calendar and at Brands Hatch, I was talking to Anthony Reid who said that he would have loved to have gone to both this year's Goodwood meetings. C'est la vie ! as Ivan Muller would say. H'mm. 

There is a rather controversial subject that Jeff and Lesley Harris feel quite strongly about. Their son James gets a 30 day ban and a fine along with Antonio Perez for their fracas at Rockingham and dear Ivan only receives a 11 day ban for a far more serious incident with Anthony Reid. One rule for one and one rule for the other, the majority of people in the Formula Ford Championship feel. Anthony Reid feels the same way too. It's all a bit too like the Pink Book that is reserved for Michael Schumacher. Need I say more !!!! 

Qualifying started at 10.55am, the weather being cloudy and dry. Tony Rodgers finished 12th overall and 10th in the Championship Class with a time of  1:12:215 which was only 0.645 secs behind Tom Kimber-Smith's pole position time of 
1:11.570. This is how competitive this year's championship is. James Harris did not have such a good session as his team-mate and finished 21st overall and 8th in the Scholarship Class with a time of 1:13:110. 

Round 17 - Saturday 6th September 

The cars lined up on the grid for the start at 11.13am on another dry but cloudy day. Tony had an interesting race to say the least. He started his race in 12th place and made up three places to 9th but unfortunately had a coming together with Medina Sport's Stephen Jelley. This put him down to the back of the field but the 1999 Irish Formula Ford Champion soon recovered and drove an intelligent race as always to make his way back up the field to finish 16th overall and 10th in the Championship Class. Sadly James Harris was less fortunate. He started his race in 21st place and drove extremely well to make his way up to 12th place overall. Many of the pundits in the paddock feel that James drove one of his best races this day and a podium position was definitely on the 
cards. At the start of the race another driver had driven into the back of James's Ray either in the first or second corner and hit a wishbone.This pushed the pushrod on to the driveshaft and the shaft slowly grinded away the pushrod. On the final lap and the final corner ' said ' pushrod gave way. End of Race. When is poor James's luck going to change. But James was not too upset and he knows only too well that ' his day will come.' 

Round 18 - Sunday 7th September 

The final round of this meeting began at 5.30pm and the weather was still kind being dry and cloudy again. Tom Gaymor and Alx Danielsson shot away into the lead with a second bunch fairly close behind. Tony made his way up from 16th on the grid and finished the race at the rear of this second bunch of cars in 8th place overall and 7th in the Championship Class. James began his second race of the meeting 3rd from last in 23rd place on the grid. He again drove an 
excellent race and was up to 12th place overall when he came up behind Stephen 
Jelley who was behind Julian Yap and Charlie Donnelly. James started to overtake Jelley in a corner who then squeezed him on to the grass midway through the corner. James had little or no control on the grass and he unfortunately slid into the back of Jelley's car. End of Race for both of them. After looking at the videotape footage of the incident after the race, Clerk of the Course Ray Sumner felt it was a racing incident although Stephen's Team Manager said to Jeff Harris that he felt that the fault lay with his driver. Sadly for Stephen, this second incident of the meeting has ruined his chances of winning the Scholarship Class at the end of the season. 

However congratulations to Tom Gaymor for his two excellent wins. 

See you all at Oulton Park for the final two rounds of this year's TOCA Tour. 

Jeff Harris


Tony Rodgers


Jeff Harris


Tony Rodgers