All Action as Formula Jedi Racers Hit Silverstone

19 July 2005

There has been a lot of talk in the press lately about the distinct lack of overtaking in F1. There have been no such complaints about the MSportUK.com-supported Formula Jedi Challenge, with plenty of action and both championships being fiercely contended.

As the cars rolled out of the trailers on Saturday morning at Silverstone just a week after the Formula 1 meeting few would have felt confident about guessing who the race winners would be. In the first qualifying session David Hodgson obviously had a very strong car underneath him and took a comfortable outright pole heading up the 1-litre cars of class B. Joss Thompson would start 13th overall and first out of the 600cc class A cars. Notable absentees from the qualifying results were last seasons class A winner, Jodie Hemming and Kat Impey, both having failed the noise tests. As a result they would have to start from the back of the grid.

Hodgson got the start he wanted and came round to complete lap one in first place. He would not be troubled for the rest of the race, taking the win and setting a new lap record for the National circuit. Behind him were Louis Hamilton-Smith, Felix Fisher and Frazer Corbyn who had managed to jump Adam Weller at the start. In the 600s Thompson had a slight lead over Scott Temple with Daniel Cook rounding off the top three. The real movers on lap 1 however had been David Cameron who went from 12th on the grid to 6th after a blinding start and the hard charging Hemming who was already up to 11th. Hemming would eventually get up to 8th before a drive shaft failed. Impey was also making fast progress from the back of the grid and on lap two made a daring move on Cook to take third in class before a mechanical failure at the front left of her car left her in the gravel at Luffield.

Over the next few laps the 1000s started to spread out slightly but on lap 16 Hamilton-Smith’s engine began dumping its oil on the track and a lap later his race was over. Next time round Fisher’s diff seized mid way through Copse sending him into a spin just in front of the lapped Thompson. Then on the exit of Becketts Corbyn spun on Hamilton-Smiths oil, again just in front of Thompson. Corbyn managed to get going again and finished second with Weller a close third. Having lost time avoiding two spinning cars Temple had managed to close the gap to Thompson to less than a second. To add to this Thompson was suffering from a badly slipping clutch and struggled to fend Temple off, crossing the line just six hundredths of a second ahead for the Class A win. Worth a mention was Nigel Reuben who should have started 3rd but pulled into the pits after the formation lap with a sheared drive shaft. He then frantically hurried to repair his car and rejoined the race some 14 laps down but still received a championship point for his efforts.

Sunday’s grid lined up much the same as Saturday. This time Reuben qualified 2nd and was starting to find the pace he had in 2002, the year in which he won the class B championship. At the start Reuben managed to squeeze down the inside of Hodgson but could only hold him off for a lap with Hodgson retaking the lead and again leaving the pack behind. Behind him Corbyn, Hemming and Reuben were all fighting hard for 2nd place. There was then a slight gap back to the next group of seven cars who were all dicing for position with the kind of vigour you’d expect from a group of Mini Coopers. In the group was Hamilton-Smith who had slipped down the running order after bogging at the start. He managed to make his way from 11th up to 6th on lap five before spinning and losing a lap to the pack badly hurting his championship aspirations. Another mover in the pack was James Southcott who managed to make up three places on lap six and break away from the group. On the same lap Corbyn lunged up the inside of Hemming and was running 3rd behind Reuben.

In the 600s Thompson had made another good start and managed to pull away from his championship rival Temple who was suffering from an overheating engine in the uncharacteristically hot weather. Running 3rd in class was Impey but she was being pushed hard by Kieran Clark as her tyres started to go off. On lap 12 and after countless position changes Stuart Abbott who was in the large group of 1000s tried for an ambitious move on, then Championship leader, David Cameron at Copse. Unfortunately it was from too far back and he clipped Cameron’s tyres sending him up into the air. From that point onwards he was heading straight for the Copse tyre wall at high speed and a huge impact. The race was red flagged so that the ambulance could get to Abbott, who amazingly he managed to get out of the car unaided, a real testament to the strength of the Jedi which was as good as a write off. Abbott later had to go to hospital for a check up and we all wish him a speedy recovery.

The final result gave David Hodgson his second win of the weekend, ahead of Nigel Reuben and Frazer Corbyn, with Joss Thompson leading Scott Temple and Kat Impey for class A honours.

The next outing for the Jedis is on Saturday 30th of July where you can expect to see lots more action and overtaking.

Joss Thompson

See 2005 series calendar for the Formula Jedi Challenge supported by MSportUK.com

Related Story 18.04.2005 - Hamilton Smith Takes Win at Combe as Jedis Destroy Lap Records