Snetterton - 10th May

Ian came away from his debut in the Universal Racing Services classic Formula Ford 2000 championship with a maximum score to his name. It was not all plain sailing however, with only limited testing before the race weekend the team were still on the back foot with regards to setup. After many changes to the car's settings during the Friday test, Ian managed to get the car up to a respectable pace by the end of the day.

With a new set of tyres on for qualifying, like all the front runners, along with a few overnight changes, Ian was straight on the pace in qualifying. Despite running out of fuel 2 laps before the end, Ian ended the session on pole position with a comfortable 0.380 second advantage over second place man, Lawrence Denne, with TV commentator and former racer Ben Edwards in 3rd - 0.877 seconds behind.

Despite never completing a full race start in the new car, Ian made an excellent get away from pole position, although not as good as the fast starting Denne in 2nd place. But with Ian holding the racing line into the first corner "Riches", he was able to keep onto the lead. After the start, Ian was never really threatened again - a missed gear in lap 2 allowed the gap to close 0.5 seconds but by half distance Ian had a very safe margin of 2 second to Denne. Ian's lead would eventually grow to almost 5 seconds by the end of the race with Ian getting the fastes lap of the race despite a lack of onboard lap times being displayed in the car. Ian commented after the race "We are absolutely thrilled, the car is a pleasure to drive and to come here and win on my debut is unbelievable; I can't wait for Oulton Park!"

Picture of Ian in car