Silverstone Spectacular

Official Race Report:- Gaymor Wins Single Silverstone Race

Tom Gaymor (Twickenham) took his first win of 2003 in the re-run round seven of the UK National Formula Ford Championship at Silverstone today, Sunday June 8. Tom Kimber-Smith (Workingham) took second in his Team JLR Van Diemen, after Dan Clarke (Oxford) and Alx Danielsson (Beford), who had long battled over the position, went out after an incident at the Abbey hairpin.

The race, was originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Silverstone, but was stopped after two racing laps due to an incident at the circuit’s Copse corner. The Mygale of Ben Clucas (Reading) went off while battling for second place and damaged the tyrewall to an extent where repairs took so long that the race had to be cancelled due to timetable restrictions. Clucas was taken to hospital after the impact as a precaution, and though bruised and sore, has no major injuries.

The decision was made by championship officials to run the rest of round seven over nine laps on Sunday afternoon, with the grid provided by running order when the first race was stopped. Round eight, originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, will now be run at Donington Park in September.

Gaymor was on pole having taken the lead in the stopped race, and broke clear early on to be never threatened in the shortened race.

"I’m pleased, I had to push hard early in the race," said ComTec Racing’s Gaymor. "The plan was to open a gap and not have to do too much at the end, and that is what happened."

Team JLR’s Tom Kimber-Smith claimed second, but only after the demise of ComTec’s Clarke and Danielsson. They had been close for much of the race, and Ray Sport’s Danielsson took a look inside Clark at Abbey, just as another car locked up and careered into the swede. Danielsson’s Ray in turn struck Clarke’s car, riding up over the back of it and putting them both out the race.

Kimber-Smith closed the gap slightly on the race leader in the later laps, but Gaymor’s advantage was too great, though second place was good enough for the 18-year-old to extend his championship lead.

"We knew we had a quick car after yesterday," said Kimber-Smith, "but Tom had to much of a gap for me to catch him. It’s great to be on the podium again scoring points, and we’re starting to pull away now in the championship."

James Walker (Jersey) took third overall and the Scholarship Class win, his third in a row in the category. The Team JLR driver calmly took advantage of the action in front of him to move up the order, finishing five places ahead of closest class rival Stephen Jelley (Leicester), who still holds the lead in the class points table.

"I was concentrating on staying with the people around me and not dropping back towards my class rival,"" explained 19-year-old Walker. "When I saw the cars in front of me go off I luckily went through the inside of all of them. Really pleased - that’s three wins on the trot now."

Yuya Sakamoto (Milton Keynes) finished fourth, gaining third in the championship class, ahead of Matt Howson (Preston), Stuart Hall (Halstead), and Valle Makela (Bishops Stortford).