Formula Ford Festival!
17th-19th October 2003
Race Report & Photography: Paula Hamilton


Qualifying - Friday October 17th 2003

I arrived early at Brands Hatch for this year's Festival in order to drive to the centre and park close to the team's transport. The time was 7.30am and the place was totally deserted. I felt quite tired but I enjoyed a quick cup of tea and bacon roll and I was ready for the day's action. Compared to previous Festivals, there was none of the corporate hospitality from companies such as Ford but in some ways, I feel that the event was better for it. There were none of the corporate hanger-ons and poseurs which, I feel, spoil motor racing today. All those in attendance were serious and dedicated motor racing enthusiasts whether they were spectators or team members and drivers. In many ways this year the Festival reminded me of a 750 Motor Club meeting. Grassroots motor racing at it's best. 

The team decided to run a 2003 Mygale for the Festival so the Ray was on display at the back of the garage. We had quite a few visitors over the weekend from karter's such as Paul Janes and Andy Wills. These two excellent drivers are keen to step up into Single Seaters as soon as budgets allow. Sad that we are in recession despite the spin from Tony Blair's government saying that all is well with the economy. Just read Ralph Firman Senior's excellent article in 
Autosport dated Oct 23rd. One thing is sure though, Formula Ford is very much alive and well and with the Racing Line management team taking over in January 2004, the future of this superb Formula looks good. I am also glad to see that we are part of the Formula 3/GT package. 

Qualifying for Heat One took place at 15:46pm. The weather was sunny and dry. 
The team was only running Tony Rodgers and he acquitted himself well by being 9th fastest with a time of 48.405. This was only 0.380 off the quickest driver Philip Glew's time of 48.025, also in a Mygale. 


Heat 1 - Saturday 18th October 2003 

Another early start from Weybridge for yours truly and I arrived even earlier. I was expecting a busier Brands Hatch but no, the place was nearly as quiet as the previous day. Again a bacon roll and cup of tea were downed and I set to work polishing the Mygale. A shiny car always seems to go faster. Looks good in the photos too! This race started at 14:10pm and again the weather was sunny and dry albeit a little chilly in the easterly wind. I will not bore you with the race details as this is fully covered in Autosport and Motorsport News. 
Tony was lucky when an errant wheel from Daniel Clarke's Ray hit the Mygale's 
nosecone but as always he drove his Alain Prost style of race and finished this heat in 4th place just behind Marko Asmer, Tom Kimber-Smith and Valle Makela. Tony was 3.467 behind heat winner Asmer with a best lap of 48.793. I managed to take some good shots of Tony which will appear shortly with this Report. 

Eliminator 2 - Sunday 19th October 2003 

The team were really buzzing after the success of Tony's fourth place in Heat One the day before and all hands were on deck to make sure that the Mygale was going to be as 100% perfect as any race car can be prior to a race. The weather for the weekend was remaining consistent for the third and final day of the Festival. No rain and plenty of sunshine. Bit like the rest of the year. We all had a chance to look at the 2004 spec Mygale resplendent in red, parked in 
one of the garages. Visitors came and went and soon it was time for Tony to don his helmet for the all important Eliminator 2 race. The race began at 11:41am and Tony had an excellent drive to finish in 4th place once again. Eventual Festival winner Joey Foster came first, followed by Tom Kimber-Smith and Oliver Jarvis. Tony was 5.637 behind Foster and his best lap was 48.722. After the race, a jubilant but very hungry team enjoyed lunch, as always prepared by Lesley Harris, and then we all set about making final preperations to the Mygale for the Final later in the day. 

The Final

As the cars formed up on the Grid for this year's Final, Team Jato Motorsport were really praying that Tony Rodgers would make it to the finish. He is a superb driver and it would have been delightful to have seen him finish this Festival on the Podium. He was on Row 4 in 7th place alongside Alex Danielsson and had an excellent chance. However fate was to deal him a rough blow when fellow Irishman Darwin Smith took Tony out and into the Pit Wall very early on in the race. He was fortunate to escape with only a bruised thumb after the heavy impact but he was very upset and disappointed. The whole team were utterly 
devastated but it was not Tony or the team's fault and overall we had an excellent Festival. Everyone agreed that Joey Foster was the deserved winner and he is such a nice guy too. 

Postscript

Team Jato Motorsport's Festival was very much an " Irish Affair". AMG Motorsport brought over the 2003 Mygale that George McAlpin used in the first round of the 2003 UK FF Championship at Mondello Park. It has only been used in anger once apparently. Alan McGarrity race engineered the car and Ivor Greenwood's race prepared Zetec sat behind our Irish driver Tony Rodgers. Our joint team owner, surprise surprise, he is Irish too!!! 

These guys working were a joy to behold and the atmosphere throughout the whole weekend was superb. Pity that an IRISH DRIVER took Tony off in the final. Still they kissed and made up afterwards. 

Bertrand Decoster, Chairman and Managing Director of Mygale was a constant visitor to our garage and gave us a lot of help and advice. He complimented our team on it's professionalism. He very much liked our Team Jato Motorsport brochure and Driver's Postcards designed by our friend David Munn. He said that it was highly unusual for a Formula Ford team to have such an excellent brochure. 

This brings me to a very "sticky" point or perhaps a "lack of stickiness" of the Avon tyres out on the circuit. I am going to be very controversial now and with our team boss Jeff Harris's approval. A contributory factor to the "coming together " of Darwin Smith and Tony Rodgers in the final was the lack of pace of our Mygale. The Greenwood engine was certainly up to scratch but the performance consistency of the Avon tyres throughout the season and the Festival was to say " varied ". Each team had two sets of tyres for the Festival and the quality of the tyres supplied to the various teams varied enormously. They might look the same from the outside but the manner in which they behaved on circuit did vary from set to set on the same car.This is not sour grapes on our half because any of you who know Jeff Harris well, this is not his style and if he is beaten fair and square, he will come up to you and slap you on the shoulder and say well done. We can can only summise that some of the stock supplied were " Old " tyres. Jeff is definitely going to discuss this matter with Avon before the Winter Series starts and as the defending champions are we going to get the " BEST TYRES"? No, this is not the way that Team Jato Motorsport operates or competes. The performance of all the tyres supplied to all teams should be near as equal as dammit. 

It was interesting to see that Ben Clucas, Michel Florie and others were having tyre problems too. 

They have the same problem in Formula One, don't they? Some team's  tyres perform better than others. Enough on that subject!!

On Thursday October 30th at Snetterton and on Friday October 31st at Brands Hatch, James Harris is going to test both the 2003 Mygale chassis and the 2002 Ray.We will then decide which car we are going to run in the 2003 Formula Ford 
Winter Series. We may possibly run another driver at these two test days.

We also plan to run a Driver Evaluation Day at Mallory Park in November. This is to decide which drivers we are going to run in the 2004 UK FF Championship. We are already getting enquiries so please do not hesitate to call Jeff Harris and book a day with us to see if you are " Up for the Challenge" to win next season's Championship. 

So there we are, we are very proud of Tony and ourselves for the achievements at this year's Festival and we are all looking forward to defending our Winter Series title at Snetterton and Brands Hatch in November. 

See you all there. 

Click here for full set
of photographs from the day...