The latest Scottish Championship racing event (Sunday 4th May) saw one very special spectator head to the Circuit to check out some of the action. Four times Indy Car and 3 times Indy 500 winner Dario Franchitti took in some of the racing, paying particular attention to the Scottish Formula Ford 1600 Championship. Franchitti was especially keen to see how his Godson, Seb Melrose (Bathgate), and young Ciaran Haggerty (Johnstone) performed in the single seater racing class.
Haggerty and Gronkowski battle on track
Haggerty, driving the Racing for Scotland supported car, a scheme to which Franchitti personally contributed towards; shrugged off his tender age to deliver an extremely exciting performance in front of one of his all-time racing heroes. Haggerty could have been forgiven if he’d let the pressure of having one of Scotland’s best racing exports, standing on the sidelines watching his every move adversely affect his performance; instead, the young Johnstone racer, merely lapped up the attention and set about delivering one of his best Formula Ford performances to date. Despite only claiming 2nd in the opening race and 4th in the final race of the day, the youngster managed to pull together a number of personal best and lap records for his efforts. The quickest, a superb 54.780 second lap, one of the quickest we have seen in the Formula Ford series for a number of years. Race wins, however, went to Graham Carroll (Musselburgh) and Jordan Gronkowski (Banff); with potentially two of the best racing performances we’ve seen in Formula Ford for a long time. With Gronkowski later claiming, that his tussle (2nd race) with Carroll was one of the greatest races of his life.
Franchitti said via Knockhill radio:
“I’m just here to watch my Godson, Seb Melrose, race in the Formula Ford Championship; also to support Ciaran Haggerty and Raymond Boyd, and generally watch some good racing.”
Franchitti also elaborated about his new role with Chip Ganassi Racing since his retirement.
“I do a bit of work with the drivers, the engineers and also do a bit of sponsor work. I just looking at everything, asking questions and generally just trying to look at different things from as many angles as possible,” all in search of finding his Target team mates a competitive advantage on the track.
Indeed, the inspiration that Franchitti’s presence brought to Heggarty’s racing, was eclipsed by Raymond Boyd’s achievements in the Classic Sports and Saloon Championship races. Boyd (Stirling), a friend of Franchitti, knew that he would have to put on a good show for his buddy and that’s exactly what he did. Scoring his best ever SMRC on-the-road finishes in the process, taking one race win and a second place finish. Tommy Gilmartin (Cupar) took the other race win and a second place finish; leaving Stan Bernard (Glasgow) to claim two third place trophies to round out the rostrum postions.
Thirlwall leads the Mini Cooper Cup field into the 1st corner
Joe Tanner (Dunfermline) and Kenny Thirlwall (Haddington) resumed their on and off track rivalry at the head of the Celtic Speed Mini Cooper Cup field today. Thankfully, Thirlwall took Tanner’s pre-race gesture of placing his main rival on the back of his racing helmet in a “Wanted” style poster in good spirit; claiming that he had contemplated wearing a similar moustache to the one Tanner had depicted him with in the helmet design.
“It’s all good banter, l was going to buy a moustache just like it for this weekend, when l seen the design during the week,” quipped Thirlwall.
On track, Thirlwall had the upper hand on Tanner taking two race victories to Tanner’s solitary rebuke. The action was as close as it had been all season in the opening two races, with both drivers crossing the finishing line with less than half a second between them. Thirlwall’s second win of the day was a simpler affair after Tanner had an off track excursion which effectively ended his racing for the day. Elsewhere, Oliver Mortimer (Edinburgh) enjoyed three podiums, but perhaps the most pleasing point for him, would be that he has closed the gap in performance to Thirlwall and Tanner at the top of the timesheets. Former double champion, David Sleigh, will also walk away from the weekend buoyed by his best result of the season after securing a 3rd place finish in the final race.
John Paterson leads the Legends Championship into Scotsman corner
In the Legends Championship, it’s shaping up to be another tight battle at the top of the standings with several drivers already showing their title credentials this season. David Hunter (Alva) extended his championship lead courtesy of two more victories on Sunday. Three podiums, including one win, will have cemented John Paterson’s (Motherwell) 2nd place in the standings; whilst two podiums for Paul O’Brien (Naas) will have elevated him above Daniel McKay in the overall points table. There are plenty other potential race winners in this series, with Duncan Vincent (Glenrothes), Euan McKay (Edinburgh) and David Newall (West Calder) to name but a few.
The 100% man, Wayne Macaualy heads into the Knockhill Hairpin on Sunday 4th May
In the Peoples Ford Fiesta ST Championship, Wayne Macaulay (Forfar) continued his fine form by taking another brace of victories this weekend; ensuring his 100% record for the season remains intact for at least another few weeks. Peter Cruickshank (Lundin Links) helped himself to two 2nd place podiums as Josh Orr (Ellon) and Andrew Christie (Gargunnock) shared the other two remaining 3rd place rostrum places. Current Fiesta XR2 leader, Hamish Smart (Edinburgh) had a weekend to forget after suffering from two DNFs. That provided Steven Gray (Aberdeen) with an opportunity to over-haul Smart at the top of the standings heading into round 3 in six weeks time.
Elsewhere, Graham Davidson and Ian Donaldson managed to out perform Charlie Shaw’s incredibly fast Ford Focus to take the Scottish Saloons and Sportscar Championship wins. Meanwhile Steven Dailly managed to hold off the hard charging Alan Kirkcaldy to take both Scottish BMW Compact Cup race victories.
For more information on all the classes that featured on this weekend’s SMRC racing programme, check out the SMRC website. For a full breakdown of results, see the MyLaps website and for a full gallery of images from the event, head on over to the Power-Images website.
Join us next time for another jam-packed race programme on Sunday 15th June.
Final thanks, as always, go to the officials, marshals and medics.