GvK Anniversary Formula Ford Festival Brands Hatch 20th October 2024
SMITH’S SPLASHES TO A SECOND FESTIVAL VICTORY THAT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS
The 53rd Formula Ford Festival took place at Brands Hatch over the weekend of the 19th and 20th of October, running in honour of the sadly missed Gerrit van Kouwen on the 40th anniversary of his 1984 Festival victory in a Lola T644E. The Dutchman went on to race in Formula Three and the BTCC but would regularly come back to Brands for the Festival, which was renamed the ‘BRSCC Gerrit van Kouwen Anniversary Formula Ford Festival’ for this year after his passing at the age of 60 earlier in 2024. At Saturday lunchtime, a replica of his victorious Lola and his Fina Ford Sierra RS500 Group A car performed demonstration laps.
Heats Round Up & Progression Race: The wet weather for qualifying produced some star turns from a selection of older machinery for the twelve-lap heats. 2023 Festival winner Rory Smith put his Medina on pole position for Heat One from the impressive Van Diemen RF90 of sometime Historic F2 racer Darwin Smith. 2023 National champion Jordan Kelly started his Van Diemen RF06 from the inside of the second row beside Tom Nippers. The morning rain had cleared to welcome autumnal sunshine by the time of the opening heat but damp patches remained offline to catch out the unwary. There was a disaster for the poleman as a driveshaft broke while he warmed his tyres leading up the race start, the Medina was pushed aside to leave Smith with his work cut out if wished to retain his title. Darwin Smith made the early running from Kelly and Nippers before the 2023 National champion got through at Druids on lap eight of twelve and took Nippers with him, with the pair filling the top two positions at the flag as Kelly won in 11 minutes 15.546 seconds. Smith's RF90 was caught by Rob Hall and the pair clashed at Clearways on lap nine after the Swift nudged the Van Diemen's gearbox, with Smith spinning off. The 2011 Castle Combe champion fell into the clutches of Charlie Mann and the Ray driver pushed Hall hard but the Swift pitted on the penultimate lap to hand the top three finish to Mann. Qualifying for Heat Two featured the most eye-opening polesitter as Tom Hawkins put his 1995 Swift onto pole from fellow Castle Combe competitor Luke Cooper. Reigning Walter Hayes Trophy champion Chris Middlehurst started from the inside of the second row alongside the 2024 United Formula Ford title winner Morgan Quinn. Track conditions continued to improve for the second twelve-lapper and the top three cars got away evenly but when Cooper threatened Hawkins on the outside of Druids, Middlehurst was able to nip past the Swift SC20 down to Graham Hill Bend for the first time. Middlehurst was straight onto the tail of Hawkins, who defended his position into Surtees, but the 2023 Walter Hayes Trophy winner would take the lead through Clark Curve, with Cooper following him past at Paddock Hill Bend for the second time. Morgan Quinn, Hugh Esterson and a charging Joey Foster all demoted the polesitter by the same spot a lap later and the Firman moved past the American's Ray for fourth at Paddock Hill Bend again on lap five. The top four cars contracted together in the later stages and formed a slipstreaming train to the end, with the top four covered by just 0.505 seconds as Middlehurst set a new benchmark winning time of 10 minutes 19.662 seconds from Cooper, Quinn and Foster. 2018 Final victor Josh Smith formed a formidable front row for Heat Three with the rapid Jason Smyth, with Smith setting two late laps good enough for pole position. Tom McArthur put his 38-year-old Van Diemen RF86 into third and perennial Festival entrant Rick Morris lined up a startling fifth with his even older Classic Formula Ford Royale RP29 as the damp conditions brought the more senior cars to the fore. This year’s HSCC Historic Formula Ford champion Spencer Shinner qualified just 0.001 seconds ahead of Morris in fourth in an Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen JL13. The surface was fully dry for the final heat and the strong lineup ought to produce the fastest overall time. Smyth got the jump off the line and led until a fluffed downchange sent him wide at Clearways on lap eight and the Irishman was escorted into the Clark Curve gravel by poleman Smith as he took the lead. Smyth fell to third as he recovered but passed Jonny McMullan approaching a yellow flag zone at Paddock Hill Bend to regain second before the flag. Tom McArthur held onto third place through the early laps before McMullan dived past Shinner at Clearways for the second time and the 2015 National champion reeled in the Van Diemen in short order to take away third place into Paddock Hill Bend starting lap four. Young Brazilian Isaac Canto da Silva held fourth after he swept around the outside of McArthur at Paddock Hill Bend a lap after McMullan and fifth spot went to Jonathan Kotyk in the Van Diemen chassis that Niall Murray came oh-so-close to winning the 2023 Festival with. The race-winning time of 10:16.798 was the quickest of the three Heats to place Smith provisionally on pole position for the first Semi-Final, whilst one of the stars of qualifying, Rick Morris, made it into the Semis in thirteenth after losing a lot of ground early on. The Heat finishers that crossed the line in lower than fourteenth position, plus those with issues, had the twelve laps of the Progression Race to rescue a place in the Semi-Finals. Pre-event favourite Rory Smith started the Progression Race from 23rd but would be thirteenth by the end of lap one, eighth on lap two, fifth by lap three and inevitably hit the front on lap seven at Spencer Shinner's expense into Graham Hill Bend. Rob Hall had started nineteenth after his Heat One retirement and rose up the order well to go through to the Semis in second, with Shinner taking third after a Heat Three spin condemned him to a Progression Race start. David McArthur started from the same row as race winner Smith and made it through in fourth. The first six cars to move up were completed by BRSCC chairman Peter Daly and veteran Stuart Kestenbaum. James Buckton led the opening stages from pole position before Shinner came past on lap four, once he'd wriggled free from Leanne McShane and Peter Daly, but the historic Elden would slip to seventh by lap nine as more modern machinery came through and a tenth-lap clash with Stephen O'Connor's RF90 saw him trail home in an eventual fourteenth. All eighteen finishers progressed to the Semi-Finals, with the five non-finishers missing out and Canadian junior Antonio Costantino missed the race altogether after the damage from a third Heat crash couldn't be fixed in time.
Semi-Final 1: The forecast rain started to materialise before the first of the fourteen-lap Semi-Finals, for which the fastest and slowest Heat winners would form the front row, but the track was still fairly dry when the grid formed up. Josh Smith had received a one-place grid penalty for crowding Jason Smyth off the circuit during the fastest third heat so opening heat victor Jordan Kelly started from pole position with the 2018 winner alongside. Two-time Castle Combe championship king Luke Cooper started from the inside of the second row beside the 2015 National title winner Jonny McMullan. The third row comprised United Formula Ford front-runner Charlie Mann and the Firman of Joey Foster, who was bidding for his fourth Festival title. Heat One polesitter and Progression Race winner Rory Smith would have to start from 22nd as he continued his fightback from the driveshaft breakage that precluded him starting his Heat. The rain was falling heavier when the race started and Cooper made a great start from row two to vault into second place behind Kelly by Paddock Hill Bend but the Wiltshireman would rue his choice of used tyres and fell back behind Josh Smith. Smith had made a slow start and was fourth into the first corner after McMullan drove around the outside of the Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen and he also banged wheels with Foster's Firman along the Cooper Straight but took third back at Druids on the second lap before dispatching Cooper's Swift past the pits ending lap four. Kelly had continued to eke out his advantage when Ben Powney's 1992 Jamun ended up in the gravel at Clearways after an incident with Rick Morris to force an appearance from the Safety Car. At the same time as the Clearways contretemps, McMullan spun under yellows for Stephen O’Connor's stationary Van Diemen RF90 that had rotated onto the infield exiting Paddock Hill Bend and fell behind Foster to fifth just before the interruption. A lapped car sat between Kelly and Smith for the restart, with the leader making full use of the chance to skip clear when the field was released going onto lap eleven. The 2023 National champion was already 4.822 seconds to the good at the resumption and took the flag by 7.248 seconds from Smith to book his place on the front row of the Grand Final. Rory Smith had made strong progress from his eleventh row start to be fourteenth inside one lap, was tenth after lap three and had reached seventh by the time of the Safety Car. A tremendous restart lap saw him pass Jonathan Kotyk by Paddock Hill Bend before Cooper ran a little wide through Surtees to concertina the pack and Foster was elbowed aside at Clearways to allow the Medina through into fourth, having got ahead of teammate McMullan in the melee. Cooper was the next to fall victim to the 2023 Festival winner's onslaught at Paddock Hill Bend a lap later. However, Smith tossed away a third row start for the Final on the last lap when he slithered into the gravel at Clearways while setting up a move on Josh Smith so crossed the line in thirteenth and would have to contest the Last Chance race if he was to make the Final. Cooper gratefully accepted third place from McMullan and Kotyk, who had passed Charlie Mann for what was sixth place as early as lap two. Third row starter Mann completed the top six ahead of the similar Ray of Canadian junior and GB4 driver Callum Baxter. Richard Higgins was the top Historic finisher in eighth with his Van Diemen RF91, whilst Jason Pribyl's Ray had spun to the back of the field on the formation lap but the American made a good recovery to claim a place inside the top ten with ninth. Tom Hawkins shored up the top ten with his 1995 Swift, ahead the delayed Foster. Samuel Harrison made it straight to the Grand Final aboard the historic Elden Mk8 in twelfth overall, one place ahead of the gutted Rory Smith.
The 53rd Formula Ford Festival took place at Brands Hatch over the weekend of the 19th and 20th of October, running in honour of the sadly missed Gerrit van Kouwen on the 40th anniversary of his 1984 Festival victory in a Lola T644E. The Dutchman went on to race in Formula Three and the BTCC but would regularly come back to Brands for the Festival, which was renamed the ‘BRSCC Gerrit van Kouwen Anniversary Formula Ford Festival’ for this year after his passing at the age of 60 earlier in 2024. At Saturday lunchtime, a replica of his victorious Lola and his Fina Ford Sierra RS500 Group A car performed demonstration laps.
Heats Round Up & Progression Race: The wet weather for qualifying produced some star turns from a selection of older machinery for the twelve-lap heats. 2023 Festival winner Rory Smith put his Medina on pole position for Heat One from the impressive Van Diemen RF90 of sometime Historic F2 racer Darwin Smith. 2023 National champion Jordan Kelly started his Van Diemen RF06 from the inside of the second row beside Tom Nippers. The morning rain had cleared to welcome autumnal sunshine by the time of the opening heat but damp patches remained offline to catch out the unwary. There was a disaster for the poleman as a driveshaft broke while he warmed his tyres leading up the race start, the Medina was pushed aside to leave Smith with his work cut out if wished to retain his title. Darwin Smith made the early running from Kelly and Nippers before the 2023 National champion got through at Druids on lap eight of twelve and took Nippers with him, with the pair filling the top two positions at the flag as Kelly won in 11 minutes 15.546 seconds. Smith's RF90 was caught by Rob Hall and the pair clashed at Clearways on lap nine after the Swift nudged the Van Diemen's gearbox, with Smith spinning off. The 2011 Castle Combe champion fell into the clutches of Charlie Mann and the Ray driver pushed Hall hard but the Swift pitted on the penultimate lap to hand the top three finish to Mann. Qualifying for Heat Two featured the most eye-opening polesitter as Tom Hawkins put his 1995 Swift onto pole from fellow Castle Combe competitor Luke Cooper. Reigning Walter Hayes Trophy champion Chris Middlehurst started from the inside of the second row alongside the 2024 United Formula Ford title winner Morgan Quinn. Track conditions continued to improve for the second twelve-lapper and the top three cars got away evenly but when Cooper threatened Hawkins on the outside of Druids, Middlehurst was able to nip past the Swift SC20 down to Graham Hill Bend for the first time. Middlehurst was straight onto the tail of Hawkins, who defended his position into Surtees, but the 2023 Walter Hayes Trophy winner would take the lead through Clark Curve, with Cooper following him past at Paddock Hill Bend for the second time. Morgan Quinn, Hugh Esterson and a charging Joey Foster all demoted the polesitter by the same spot a lap later and the Firman moved past the American's Ray for fourth at Paddock Hill Bend again on lap five. The top four cars contracted together in the later stages and formed a slipstreaming train to the end, with the top four covered by just 0.505 seconds as Middlehurst set a new benchmark winning time of 10 minutes 19.662 seconds from Cooper, Quinn and Foster. 2018 Final victor Josh Smith formed a formidable front row for Heat Three with the rapid Jason Smyth, with Smith setting two late laps good enough for pole position. Tom McArthur put his 38-year-old Van Diemen RF86 into third and perennial Festival entrant Rick Morris lined up a startling fifth with his even older Classic Formula Ford Royale RP29 as the damp conditions brought the more senior cars to the fore. This year’s HSCC Historic Formula Ford champion Spencer Shinner qualified just 0.001 seconds ahead of Morris in fourth in an Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen JL13. The surface was fully dry for the final heat and the strong lineup ought to produce the fastest overall time. Smyth got the jump off the line and led until a fluffed downchange sent him wide at Clearways on lap eight and the Irishman was escorted into the Clark Curve gravel by poleman Smith as he took the lead. Smyth fell to third as he recovered but passed Jonny McMullan approaching a yellow flag zone at Paddock Hill Bend to regain second before the flag. Tom McArthur held onto third place through the early laps before McMullan dived past Shinner at Clearways for the second time and the 2015 National champion reeled in the Van Diemen in short order to take away third place into Paddock Hill Bend starting lap four. Young Brazilian Isaac Canto da Silva held fourth after he swept around the outside of McArthur at Paddock Hill Bend a lap after McMullan and fifth spot went to Jonathan Kotyk in the Van Diemen chassis that Niall Murray came oh-so-close to winning the 2023 Festival with. The race-winning time of 10:16.798 was the quickest of the three Heats to place Smith provisionally on pole position for the first Semi-Final, whilst one of the stars of qualifying, Rick Morris, made it into the Semis in thirteenth after losing a lot of ground early on. The Heat finishers that crossed the line in lower than fourteenth position, plus those with issues, had the twelve laps of the Progression Race to rescue a place in the Semi-Finals. Pre-event favourite Rory Smith started the Progression Race from 23rd but would be thirteenth by the end of lap one, eighth on lap two, fifth by lap three and inevitably hit the front on lap seven at Spencer Shinner's expense into Graham Hill Bend. Rob Hall had started nineteenth after his Heat One retirement and rose up the order well to go through to the Semis in second, with Shinner taking third after a Heat Three spin condemned him to a Progression Race start. David McArthur started from the same row as race winner Smith and made it through in fourth. The first six cars to move up were completed by BRSCC chairman Peter Daly and veteran Stuart Kestenbaum. James Buckton led the opening stages from pole position before Shinner came past on lap four, once he'd wriggled free from Leanne McShane and Peter Daly, but the historic Elden would slip to seventh by lap nine as more modern machinery came through and a tenth-lap clash with Stephen O'Connor's RF90 saw him trail home in an eventual fourteenth. All eighteen finishers progressed to the Semi-Finals, with the five non-finishers missing out and Canadian junior Antonio Costantino missed the race altogether after the damage from a third Heat crash couldn't be fixed in time.
Semi-Final 1: The forecast rain started to materialise before the first of the fourteen-lap Semi-Finals, for which the fastest and slowest Heat winners would form the front row, but the track was still fairly dry when the grid formed up. Josh Smith had received a one-place grid penalty for crowding Jason Smyth off the circuit during the fastest third heat so opening heat victor Jordan Kelly started from pole position with the 2018 winner alongside. Two-time Castle Combe championship king Luke Cooper started from the inside of the second row beside the 2015 National title winner Jonny McMullan. The third row comprised United Formula Ford front-runner Charlie Mann and the Firman of Joey Foster, who was bidding for his fourth Festival title. Heat One polesitter and Progression Race winner Rory Smith would have to start from 22nd as he continued his fightback from the driveshaft breakage that precluded him starting his Heat. The rain was falling heavier when the race started and Cooper made a great start from row two to vault into second place behind Kelly by Paddock Hill Bend but the Wiltshireman would rue his choice of used tyres and fell back behind Josh Smith. Smith had made a slow start and was fourth into the first corner after McMullan drove around the outside of the Oldfield Motorsport Van Diemen and he also banged wheels with Foster's Firman along the Cooper Straight but took third back at Druids on the second lap before dispatching Cooper's Swift past the pits ending lap four. Kelly had continued to eke out his advantage when Ben Powney's 1992 Jamun ended up in the gravel at Clearways after an incident with Rick Morris to force an appearance from the Safety Car. At the same time as the Clearways contretemps, McMullan spun under yellows for Stephen O’Connor's stationary Van Diemen RF90 that had rotated onto the infield exiting Paddock Hill Bend and fell behind Foster to fifth just before the interruption. A lapped car sat between Kelly and Smith for the restart, with the leader making full use of the chance to skip clear when the field was released going onto lap eleven. The 2023 National champion was already 4.822 seconds to the good at the resumption and took the flag by 7.248 seconds from Smith to book his place on the front row of the Grand Final. Rory Smith had made strong progress from his eleventh row start to be fourteenth inside one lap, was tenth after lap three and had reached seventh by the time of the Safety Car. A tremendous restart lap saw him pass Jonathan Kotyk by Paddock Hill Bend before Cooper ran a little wide through Surtees to concertina the pack and Foster was elbowed aside at Clearways to allow the Medina through into fourth, having got ahead of teammate McMullan in the melee. Cooper was the next to fall victim to the 2023 Festival winner's onslaught at Paddock Hill Bend a lap later. However, Smith tossed away a third row start for the Final on the last lap when he slithered into the gravel at Clearways while setting up a move on Josh Smith so crossed the line in thirteenth and would have to contest the Last Chance race if he was to make the Final. Cooper gratefully accepted third place from McMullan and Kotyk, who had passed Charlie Mann for what was sixth place as early as lap two. Third row starter Mann completed the top six ahead of the similar Ray of Canadian junior and GB4 driver Callum Baxter. Richard Higgins was the top Historic finisher in eighth with his Van Diemen RF91, whilst Jason Pribyl's Ray had spun to the back of the field on the formation lap but the American made a good recovery to claim a place inside the top ten with ninth. Tom Hawkins shored up the top ten with his 1995 Swift, ahead the delayed Foster. Samuel Harrison made it straight to the Grand Final aboard the historic Elden Mk8 in twelfth overall, one place ahead of the gutted Rory Smith.
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Semi-Final 2: Heat Two winner Chris Middlehurst took up pole position for the second Semi-Final and was originally due to have Jason Smyth starting alongside but the Irishman was handed a three-place grid drop as he was adjudged to have gone past Jonny McMullan in his Heat under yellow flag conditions, which gave the outside of the front row start to Tom Nippers. 2024 United Formula Ford champion Morgan Quinn and his Team Dolan stablemate Isaac Canto da Silva formed the second row ahead of the penalised Smyth. Belgian John Svensson completed the first three rows with his Ray. The Progression Race runner-up Rob Hall started from 22nd with his Swift. The circuit was much wetter than for the first Semi-Final, with visibility greatly reduced in the increased spray. Middlehurst produced a masterclass as he led throughout the fourteen laps to book his place on the front row of the Final. Despite much more water collecting on the surface, the lack of a Safety Car intervention meant that this Semi-Final was faster than the first one and was completed in 14 minutes 22.388 seconds, as opposed to the 16 minutes 16.060 seconds set a short time earlier, which put Middlehurst onto pole position for the Grand Final as he gunned for his first Festival victory. Smyth dived ahead of both da Silva and Quinn into Paddock Hill Bend for the first time and battled past Nippers through Surtees to chase Middlehurst home, finishing 4.318 seconds adrift. The Van Diemen of Quinn got ahead of Nippers into Druids on lap nine to take third from the Welshman as Team Dolan cars filled the first three places, with Quinn 10.794 seconds down on runner-up Smyth. Hugh Esterson was fifth in his Ammonite Ray as his bid to emulate younger brother Max’s 2022 victory continued from the top Historic Van Diemen RF86 of Tom McArthur, which gave him pole position for the Historic Final. The second Ammonite Ray of Anthony Amato was seventh, with Ben Cochran eighth and Darwin Smith's Van Diemen RF90 ninth. Da Silva ran wide into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel on lap three when well-placed in fourth and entered into battle with Svensson and the Ammonite Rays plus Smith's older Van Diemen before Cochran came through when the Brazilian had a second off at Paddock Hill Bend for the penultimate time to finish tenth, ahead of Chris Acton's Ray. Rob Hall’s progress wasn’t quite as outstanding as Rory Smith’s in the previous Semi-Final but the 2011 Castle Combe champion still drove strongly to finish twelfth in the tricky conditions and was the last to automatically advance to the Grand Final. Belgian Svensson had done well to move ahead of Quinn into fifth on lap two before the Van Diemen went back ahead soon after into Paddock Hill Bend, with McArthur following through too at Druids, before the Ray went out on lap twelve.
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Last Chance Race: Conditions had improved slightly for the eight-lap sprint to establish the last six cars on the Grand Final grid after the rain had temporarily stopped but a gusty wind was now blowing. Andy Charsley started from pole position ahead of Rory Smith on the front row, with the Medina expected to advance to the Grand Final. B-M Racing co-founder David McArthur and Historic ace Spencer Shinner went from the second row, with Brindley Kinch's Ray and Leanne McShane's Firman the rest of the top six starters. Two-time winner Gavin Wills started seventh, with the weekend marking thirty years since his first Kent Festival win, alongside Rick Morris. Drew Cameron and Dan Rene Larsen formed the top ten but the grid was quite depleted behind them as a number of the Historic field wouldn't take the start. Alex Ames' Van Diemen RF90, along with Peter Lucas and William Liston's RF88s, and Sam Street's Swift SC92F were all late withdrawals. A number of cars due to start in the teens didn't make the start too, including Stuart Kestenbaum, Matthew Sturmer and both Bucktons. Neither of the JRT Rays to be handled by John Svensson and Pascal Monbaron appeared either on the twelfth and thirteenth rows. 1992 Champion of Brands Charsley made the best start from pole as Smith was forced to fend off McArthur but Smith quickly moved into the lead descending the hill from Druids. The polesitter would also lose out to McArthur, Kinch and McShane by the end of lap one but, further back, Adam Fathers' Ray and Ben Powney's Jamun had collided at Graham Hill Bend to bring out the Safety Car and the red flag soon followed. The depleted field was further reduced by the incident and the the grid would line up in the original order for the restart, which helped Shinner after the 2024 HSCC Formula Ford champion made a Horlicks of the first start. Smith made a better getaway this time to lead into Paddock Hill Bend, with McArthur moving up to second at Druids. Shinner made another poor start from the second row to drop down to seventh place at Druids, whilst Brindley Kinch spun out of fifth at McLaren for the first time but had recovered into the top ten before he collided with Stephen O’Connor's RF90 at Clearways on lap five after the Van Diemen spun and took the Ray off with it. With the cars close to the edge of the circuit, the red flags flew again and a result was declared after three laps. Smith did just enough on an older set of tyres to win from McArthur by 1.231 seconds. McShane went through in third ahead of Shinner, Charsley and Cameron to make up the last three rows of the Grand Final, with Rick Morris the first reserve in seventh. The Firman of McShane had grabbed third from Charsley up Hailwood's Rise on lap two, with Shinner going by at Clearways later in the lap after passing Cameron at the end of lap one. Formula Vee racer James Harridge made a charge into top ten but the curtailed race stymied the Mygale’s progress and was classified eighth on countback, having passed Morris for seventh place early on lap five.
Grand Final: Driving rain had returned since the Last Chance race, with the circuit very wet again for the start of the Grand Final. The Semi-Final winners Chris Middlehurst and Jordan Kelly lined up on the front row, with the faster second Semi-Final winning time placing the 2023 runner-up onto pole position and he aimed to go one better to take his maiden Festival crown. 2018 Festival winner Josh Smith started his bid for a second title alongside Jason Smyth on row two, whilst Luke Cooper had saved a set of new tyres for the final and started from the outside of the third row alongside Morgan Quinn. Tom Nippers and Jonny McMullan went from row four, ahead of an all-American fifth row as Hugh Esterson headed Jonathan Kotyk at the foot of the top ten starters. One of the pre-event best bets, Joey Foster, had a lot of work to do from 22nd to reach the front, whilst Rory Smith had a mountain to climb from 25th. The softer-suspended Historic cars could pull off some surprises in the results and Tom McArthur's 1986 Van Diemen was best placed in 11th, with the Brian Jones Memorial Trophy top three of Darwin Smith, Tom Hawkins and Samuel Harrison starting from 17th, 20th and 24th. The current Walter Hayes Trophy holder Middlehurst outdragged Kelly off the line from pole position at the start of the twenty laps but slithered wide at Druids to put the 2023 National champion in front. Middlehurst was able to hold onto second out of the hairpin as Smyth sat in an early third ahead of Smith and Cooper. Kelly ably headed the lead train in the early going but was assaulted by Smyth at Clearways on lap two after the Irish youngster optimistically tried to take two spots in one move. The leader and Middlehurst had both taken the outside ‘wet’ line and Smyth tried to go under both, with the pair spinning down the order and Josh Smith passed Middlehurst as he recovered his lost momentum to hit the front along the pit straight and Esterson did likewise to Cooper for what had become third place. The front two pulled away from the Esterson and Cooper squabble until the Swift took back third position at Druids for the seventh time, after the Ray got sideways riding the Paddock Hill Bend exit kerb. The Firman of Foster had flown into the top ten from the eleventh row before skating wide at Graham Hill Bend attempting to pass Nippers on lap four and rejoined just ahead of the delayed Smyth in ninth but had tigered back to fourth by the time of the first Safety Car with passes on Nippers and McMullan at Druids on consecutive laps. The flying Firman then dived inside of Quinn at Paddock Hill Bend starting lap nine and the United Formula Ford champion attempted to fight back up to Druids but Foster wasn’t to be denied, Esterson in fourth was the next to be dispensed with when the Cornishman went up the inside of the Ammonite Ray at Druids for eleventh time. The Safety Car soon followed on lap twelve, with the second Pirate Firman of Leanne McShane stuck on the infield at Clearways after a squabble with Andy Charsley ended in tears. Smith had seen his slight lead reduced to nothing just before the interruption and the defending Walter Hayes Trophy champion Middlehurst was keen to win his first Festival final. The Safety Car came in at the end of lap fourteen and the three laps would be added on to the total distance, Smith went as the train went through Surtees and made a small break from Middlehurst, whilst Foster immediately moved up to third at the restart after towing up to Cooper and sailed around the outside of Paddock Hill Bend. The charging Firman took second from Middlehurst with a mirror image of his Cooper move on the following lap as the top three were now glued together but early leader Kelly’s promising start ended in the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend after the Van Diemen sailed straight off, with the resulting yellow flags scuppering Foster’s chances of gaining a place three laps in a row. The incident eventually forced another Safety Car on lap seventeen to remove the beached RF06. The action resumed at the of end lap nineteen, which left six laps remaining of what was now a 25-lap final. Smith went early again but Foster was still able to get his nose ahead into Paddock Hill Bend at the restart on lap twenty but Smith held onto first place on the inside line after the Firman carried in a little too much speed. Foster ran up the outside again starting the following lap before switching to the inside up Hailwood's Rise but Smith was able to cover the line each time, his defensive tactics had made it a train of seven cars fighting over the top placings after Quinn and the recovering Smyth got onto the back of the line. Foster had the outside blocked again by Smith at Paddock Hill Bend starting lap 22 before the Firman looked to the outside once more at Clearways. Foster was edged onto the grass as Smith drove the wet line and the Firman slithered into the gravel before tangling wheels with the unfortunate Smyth as he rejoined, the Cornishman’s storming drive ending as both spun out. The yellow flags would cover Clearways for the remainder of the race, with Middlehurst back on the tail of Smith. The leader defended his position for all he was worth to take the lead onto the last lap, with Middlehurst having a run on the 2013 Van Diemen out of Clearways to the line but fell 0.143 seconds short so Smith claimed his second Festival crown after a thrilling race. Smith's victorious Van Diemen was appropriately running the ‘200’ number carried by Gerrit van Kouwen to the victory in 1984. A post-race investigation into the incident with Foster went nowhere and a failed appeal by Middlehurst should have confirmed the Oldfield Motorsport driver’s triumph but the runner-up intends to take the issue to the National court. Cooper was with them onto the final tour to take a great podium, whilst Esterson took fourth from Quinn and Rory Smith in sixth, whose progress was more measured than the meteoric rise of Foster in the opening laps but a top-six result was still a decent outcome after having to contest every race possible. The 2015 National champion McMullan and privateer Tom Nippers came home in seventh and eighth. Charlie Mann was disqualified from ninth for a yellow flag offence to promote David McArthur's Medina to the place after starting alongside Rory Smith on the 13th row and Isaac Canto da Silva moved into the top ten. Samuel Harrison finished as the leading Historic competitor in fourteenth with the 50-year-old Elden, whilst Brian Jones Trophy winner Darwin Smith was a first lap casualty at Druids.
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Historic Final: Wet and blustery conditions greeted the capacity field for the fifteen-lap race for cars built before 1998 and the winner would receive the Brian Jones Memorial Trophy. Tom McArthur would start from pole position with an RF86 Van Diemen and shared the front row with the RF91 Van Diemen of 2023 winner Richard Higgins. The Heat One front row starting Darwin Smith and the Heat Two poleman Tom Hawkins shared row two with their Van Diemen RF90 and Swift SC95 respectively, with the 1992 Champion of Brands Andy Charsley's Ray and HSCC FF2000 champion Samuel Harrison's Elden, one of the oldest cars in the field, completing the top six. The evergreen Rick Morris started eighth and expected front-runners Alex Ames, William Liston and Sam Street went from tenth, eleventh and twelfth respectively but Ames pulled off during the formation lap. Smith leapt into the lead at the start, whilst McArthur skated straight into the gravel at Paddock Hill Bend for the first time looking at the back of the leading RF90. Hawkins profited from the poleman's slip to move into fourth before a pair of confident passes saw the Swift end the opening lap in second place and Hawkins soon caught the leading Van Diemen. However, novice Melly Zhang rotated into the Paddock Hill Bend gravel trap on lap four to introduce the Safety Car and neutralise the battle. The restart would come at the end of lap eight and Hawkins was straight back onto the RF90's gearbox, his best chance came at the end of lap eleven approaching Paddock Hill Bend but Smith held on under extreme pressure to win by 0.634 seconds as multiple yellow flag zones thwarted the Swift's attempts. Front row man Higgins fell behind a fast-starting Charsley into Paddock Hill Bend and Hawkins went by at Surtees before the Swift took second at Clearways. Veteran Rick Morris was also on the move and took fourth from Higgins at the start of lap two, with Samuel Harrison right with the pair too and they would be a quartet by the end of the second lap as they all caught Charsley. Morris wouldn't hold fourth for long after he drifted wide at Surtees for the third time and fell behind Higgins and Harrison, with Sam Street's 1992 Swift giving chase. Higgins quickly dragged past Charsley for third place as they went onto lap four to lead the queue behind the top two for the restart from the Ray, Harrison, Morris, William Liston and Street. Australian Liston had started on the sixth row but was up to eighth by the end of lap two and took Street just before the interruption on lap five. Harrison pounced immediately at the restart to pinch fourth place from Charsley into Paddock Hill Bend, whilst Liston got up the inside of Morris for sixth place at Druids and repeated the move for fifth place a lap later. The gap between the third to fifth place cars began to contract over the following laps and Liston grabbed fourth place from Harrison on lap thirteen but the RF88 collided with Higgins at Druids whilst making a bid for third on the penultimate lap, which left Harrison to take a superb podium finish in the elderly Elden Mk8. Higgins spun and Liston was forced to a stop but both were able to continue, with the pair trailing home behind Charsley and Morris in sixth and seventh. Street lost a lot of ground arrowing across the grass at Surtees on the restart lap before his race ended in the Paddock Hill Bend gravel bed on lap eleven.
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The Festival was the start of a fortnight of top Formula Ford action as the FF1600 community turned its attention to the annual Walter Hayes Trophy on the National circuit at Silverstone over the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd of November, with Chris Middlehurst aiming to retain his crown.