New Car, New Heights for Kat at Brands Hatch

15 June 2004

A sun-drenched Brands Hatch in Kent was the venue for rounds 7 and 8 of the Formula Jedi Championship last weekend 12-13 June, and the first outing of Katharine Impey's new Jedi racing car, supported by the MSport-UK featured Lunar Racing team.

Kat settled in to the new car immediately and was clearly pleased with its performance, getting to grips with the hilly Brands Hatch 'Indy' Circuit in free practice before a good qualifying session in which she was in the thick of the class A runners. It was in the thick of the top-runners she would stay throughout the race, pushing hard to keep with the leading 600cc cars. With front-runner Miles Hulford exiting the race just past the half-way mark in an incident with 1000cc championship leader Luke Kidsley, Kat was able to keep ahead of Gary Coburn to take third-in-class, 11th overall and her first 600cc-class Podium place.

Kat collected her trophy as the second female on the 600cc podium, with Jodie Hemming taking the class win for the seventh consecutive race.

Sunday's race was to be another all-action affair with Kat running in a tight pack of class A cars. Closing on the cars of Gary Coburn and Daniel Cook, Kat was lucky not to get involved when they tangled around Surtees, taking each other out of the race. Close behind the pair, Kat narrowly avoided the front wishbone flying past her helmet as she got on with the business of chasing down Miles Hulford.

Pushing hard, Kat was bringing her lap times down as she became more familiar with the new car, and though Miles was, by that point, too far ahead to catch, the gap had closed to two seconds as they crossed the line. A fifth in class and 13th overall gave Kat her second points finish of the weekend and a great base on which to build as the Jedi series moves to Cadwell Park on 4th July.

The new Jedi will be receiveing a new paint job for the remainder of the season, even more distinctive than its current silver and orange - watch this space!

See 2004 series calendar for Formula Jedi

Related Story 04.06.2004 - More Points for Lunar Racing in All-Action Jedi Races at Silverstone