Team USA Scholarship driver, Josef Newgarden became the first American to win the prestigious Formula Ford Festival. Fellow Team USA scholarship driver, Conor Daly did extremely well to finish the main event in sixth place after having mechanical problems hamper his efforts in both heat races. Daly's father, Derek Daly, won the event in 1976 on a rain soaked circuit. Both Josef and Conor drove for Cliff Dempsey Racing in Formula Ford 1600 Kent cars. Cliff Dempsey, team owner, is the father of Star Mazda competitor Peter Dempsey. The Dempseys have a very solid Formula Ford program and it showed today as Newgarden took the Kent victory at Brands Hatch.
The duo will head to Silverstone on November 1st to take part in the world's largest Formula Ford Race; the Walter Hayes Trophy.
For further reading on Team USA, checkout Team USA Blogs.
Twitter
Facebook
MySpace
LinkedIn
Posts
3 comments:
While the victory was great and all, it's still worth noting that the Kent class really is a club level category in Britain. While there are some quality drivers there (lacking budget for bigger things) the real competition and the "real" Festival final is in the Duratec class.
It would be nice to have seen what Newgarden and Daly could have done against the more famous names in the Festival.
Winning the Kent Festival is worth nothing??? From the sounds of things, you obviously know nothing about FF1600 racing in the UK, and you werne't at the Festival. I was. So many Englishmen try to beat the Irish, but they are so quick and supreme. These American boys came over for the first time and made it look so easy. You Americans should be very proud of what they have done, they are two seriously talented drivers. The Festival this year, from looking at the entry list, there were 20 possible winners from 50 entrants, including Josef and Connor, the strongest FF1600 trophy meeting for at least 10 years. They are in the top 4 of my possible Walter Hayes Trophy winners. Not saying Duratec is not good, Kent is more than surely the place these American boys should get a taste for close racing in the UK, before going to Duratec next year, if that is a willing choice. I would not be surprised to see them knocking on door of an F1 or GP2 drive within 4 years.
Where did I say it was worth nothing?
"it's still worth noting (...)" is not "it's still worth nothing". ;)
I merely stated the fact that Kents aren't the main event at the Festival. It may be the main event when it comes to entertainment, but that's a whole different thing.
Post a Comment